The Assembly of States Parties brings together the 103 States parties to the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and numerous governmental and non governmental observers. For the first time, the organisation of the ASP has enabled an active participation of all state delegations and a better access to the various workshops of the Assembly.
FIDH welcomes particularly the support given by the ASP to the Court’s work on outreach. Indeed, the ASP decided (for the first time) not to follow the recommendations of the Committee on Budget and Finance and thus, to grant, despite the Committee’s advice, the budget asked by the Court for its outreach activities among the communities concerned by investigations.
The reinforcement of these activities is vital to spread out a better understanding of the ICC mandate and activities among the communities concerned and, further, to improve a better interaction between these communities and the Court. It will also facilitate a better access to the Court for Congolese, Ugandan and Sudanese victims. Thus, FIDH urges the Registry to quickly increase its presence on the ground and to intensify its outreach activities in the situation countries, genuinely insufficient today.
Accordingly, FIDH urges the Court to continue to elaborate its strategic plan for the next ten years, in order, in particular, to reinforce the role of victims, as recommended by the ASP.
Furthermore, FIDH welcomes the discussions aiming at strengthening States’ cooperation with the Court, and the upcoming study on this issue that the bureau of the Assembly of States Parties should present at the sixth session in 2007. States cooperation is very essential to investigations, Court’s prosecutions as well as to the implementation of the rights of victims (through the adoption of witnesses’ relocation agreements and the freezing of property and assets of accused in order to provide reparation to victims).
Finally, FIDH salutes the re-election of four members of the Board of Directors of the Trust Fund for Victims: Ms. Simone Veil, M. Desmond Tutu, M. Tadeusz Mazowiecki and M. Arthur Robinson. FIDH calls Asian States to nominate candidates for a fifth available seat which must be filled at the resumed session of the ASP in New York at the end of January 2007. The election of the Board of Directors will enable it to start effectively its activities from next year, as its president had announced it on 9 November 2006. FIDH encourages all States to contribute voluntarily, on a regular base, to the Trust Fund for victims, in order to allow it to fulfill its mandate of assistance and reparation for victims.
While the ASP was sitting in The Hague, president Bush announced on 28 November 2006 the suspension of the withdrawal of the American aid to fourteen States Parties to the ICC Statute which had refused to sign a bilateral immunity agreement. “The resurgence of this aid will have to be followed by the renunciation of political and economic pressure, aimed at sanctioning or preventing numerous States from supporting effectively the ICC and thus the fight against impunity of the most serious crimes. FIDH hopes this decision is a turning point for a real change in the hostile policy of the United States against the ICC”, declared Sidiki Kaba, FIDH president.