"National and International Responses to Serious International Crimes:
Fostering an EU Approach"
Public Conference
European Parliament
Brussels
20 November 2006, 14h - 19h
21 November 2006, 9h - 18h
REDRESS and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) are organising a conference on "National and International Responses to Serious International Crimes: Fostering an EU Approach". The conference is organised with the support of the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties,
Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE) and the Sub-Committee on Human Rights (DROI) and will take place on 20-21 November 2006 in the European Parliament in Brussels.
The conference is part of a joint project of FIDH & REDRESS that seeks to end safe havens for perpetrators
of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture and to ensure that victims of these crimes have equal access to enforceable remedies within the European Union (EU). The EU and its member states have a crucial role to play to achieve these objectives, in line with the EU’s commendable commitment to the International Criminal Court, its support for the ad-hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and its external promotion of international human rights and humanitarian law. Likewise, a number of Member States have made considerable advances in the fight against impunity by holding perpetrators of the worst crimes accountable in their own countries, thereby often applying the principle of universal jurisdiction.
The conference will explore the current state of affairs regarding the implementation of international law
obligations by Member States and the legal as well as practical challenges to implement international
criminal law in practice. The role of the European Union to assist and encourage Member States to comply with international obligations will be examined, looking in particular to mechanisms of cooperation and coordination and taking into account existing third pillar competencies and mechanisms.
We wish to bring together representatives from the EU institutions, Justice and Foreign Affairs ministries
of the Member States, civil society and practitioners and academics with experience in international
criminal law.
For more detail, please find the agenda hereafter, as well as the background paper to the conference.
To participate, please fill in and return the registration form hereafter by email to Jürgen Schurr at juergen[at]redress.org [1] or via fax at +32 2209 6380.
You will also find some practical information concerning the conference.