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 |  Subject: Trouble for the International Criminal Court -- Obama administration is leading the opposition  Tue Jun 08, 2010 5:11 am | |
| How is the International Criminal Court getting along? To answer that question, the Review Conference for the ICC was convened in Kampala, Uganda, on May 31 and is scheduled to last through June 11. It was launched with an ambitious agenda to engage in a stocktaking exercise, assess the Court’s record since 2002, and consider three amendments to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC. The organizers and supportive non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had high hopes that the conference would result in a ringing endorsement of the Court and the adoption of amendments that would greatly enhance its power. Midway through the conference, however, that agenda is taking on water. Most surprising — and gratifying — is that concerns and objections raised by the Obama administration have been central to interrupting the momentum of the conference and, hopefully, stopping the adoption of the proposed amendments.
Opening Comments Set the Stage for Dissension
The review conference kicked off with the kind of fanfare that is traditional at international meetings. The opening comments (termed the “general debate”) began with a series of statements from ICC officials, U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, and former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan. The two days of general debate involved statements from 84 states (67 “states parties” and 17 “observers”) along with numerous international organizations and NGOs, all reiterating “their commitment to the ICC mission of fighting against impunity, bringing justice to victims and deterring future atrocities.”
However, just as momentum seemed to be building toward a smooth adoption of the agenda, the U.S. delegation voiced a discordant note. In his opening statement, U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes Stephen Rapp told the assembled countries that
we have repeatedly been reminded that many issues concerning the crime of aggression remain to be resolved, including core questions that the Special Working Group identified when it concluded its work last year. These issues are not of marginal significance, they are elemental: What conditions must be satisfied before the ICC can exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression, for example? How will any aggression amendments that might be adopted enter into force?
Ambassador Rapp reiterated that the uncertainties surrounding the crime of aggression are too fundamental to be resolved at the conference, and that the willingness of some member states to have the conference adopt the proposed crime of aggression and let the ICC clarify any uncertainties through future cases was unacceptable, observing that “a fundamental principle of legality is that individuals must know whether conduct crosses the line into that which is forbidden before they act and not learn the answer in the crucible of trial.”
He concluded by observing that if the crime of aggression is adopted, the prospects for the ICC to attain universal ratification will be greatly diminished. This not-so-subtle implication that the U.S. would never ratify the Rome Statute if the proposed crime of aggression was adopted cast a pall over the conference.
The general debate closed with many NGOs and delegates voicing frustrated and disappointed comments to each other. Although they should not have been surprised — the Obama administration had been making similar statements for months prior to the conference — many delegates and NGOs had held out hope that the Americans would become more conciliatory once they were at the conference itself. They were disabused of that hope by Rapp’s statement, which, aside from a few sentences here and there, could have been made by the Bush administration.
More: http://article.nationalreview.com/435727/trouble-for-the-international-criminal-court/brett-d-schaefer |
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