The ICC President addresses the United Nations General Assembly: ‘The ICC has continued its progress on many fronts’
Today, the President of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Judge Sang-Hyun Song presented the Court’s sixth annual report to the United Nations General Assembly, highlighting some of the judicial developments of the past year including the issuance of its first warrant of arrest for the crime of genocide, the start of a second trial, and the voluntary appearance of three suspects before the Court.
In his address, Judge Song discussed the Review Conference of the Rome Statute held in Kampala, Uganda from 31 May to 11 June, during which States Parties to the Rome Statute adopted a definition of the crime of aggression. ‘The Court’s ability to exercise jurisdiction over this crime will be subject to a decision to be taken by States Parties after 1 January, 2017’, he said.
The ICC President provided an update on the Court’s growing judicial activities, and discussed the challenge posed by state cooperation with the ICC, ‘which is of paramount importance to the Court’s ability to fulfil its mandate’. He recalled that arrest warrants are outstanding against eight suspects, including four alleged commanders of the Lord’s Resistance Army in the situation in Uganda, who have evaded arrest for more than five years. Judge Song said that this is having a devastating effect on victims and urged the international community to intensify its efforts to bring the suspects to justice.
The ICC had informed the United Nations Security Council of Sudan’s lack of cooperation in the case against two suspects in the Darfur situation, which had been referred to the Court by the Security Council. The Court had also informed the Assembly of States Parties and the Security Council regarding the presence of the Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir in Chad and Kenya despite the arrest warrants issued against him. This ‘underlines the purely judicial nature of the ICC, which is safeguarded by the option to refer matters with potential political implications to the appropriate political bodies for their consideration’, declared the ICC President.
Judge Song emphasized the ICC’s engagement with victims, which is of unprecedented value and is steadily expanding. He highlighted the respective roles of the ICC’s Outreach programme, which communicates with the local population and informs the victims of their rights, and of the Trust Fund for Victims, which is currently providing assistance to more than 40,000 direct beneficiaries.
He informed that this year four more nations joined the ICC bringing the total number of States that have ratified or acceded to the Rome Statute to 114. ‘I warmly welcome Bangladesh, Seychelles, Saint Lucia and Moldova into the ICC family’, he said.
Finally, Judge Song discussed the progress towards the global impact of the Rome Statute and stressed that ‘joining the ICC not only sends out a strong signal of commitment to the rule of law, peace and justice, but it also gives the State in question the right to participate fully in the ICC’s work’. ‘Let us continue to build on our shared values so that we may move a step closer to eradicating impunity for the gravest crimes of concern to all of humanity’, he concluded.
The ICC’s Sixth Annual Report to the UN (2009/10)
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