Message from High Commissioner for Human Rights The International Criminal Court Conference, Johannesburg

Johannesburg, 27 August 1999

Chair, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,


I welcome the participants in this important Conference. The topics you will be discussing all concern the essentials of the Court, namely, the rationale behind the efforts to bring it into being, its competence and powers, its relationship to the United Nations, its relationship to domestic courts, the role of international criminal law and justice in relation to truth commissions, and its relation to the development of international human rights law and international humanitarian law.

My Office will continue to work with the Government of South Africa to help strengthen institutions concerned with human rights and the rule of law. This Conference brings together the South African Human Rights Commission and the valuable involvement of the Human Rights Institute (Technikon S.A.), the Centre for Human Rights of Pretoria University, the Oliver Tambo UNESCO Chair of Human Rights of the University of Fort Hare and the Centre for Applied Legal Studies of Witwatersrand University.

A major advantage of the International Criminal Court as envisaged in the Rome Statute, adopted on 17 July 1998, lies in its permanent character. The ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda count as highly important steps towards the court’s establishment: they send a clear message that the climate of impunity must be broken. However, by their nature, ad hoc international criminal tribunals are essentially retrospective, designed as they are to address primarily the question of individual criminal responsibility for crimes already committed in particular countries during a specific time period.

In contrast, the International Criminal Court is intended to act as a standing court to help deter and prevent such major crimes as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Thus, its potential for positively ensuring full respect for human rights and the rule of law not only in Africa, but around the globe, must not be underestimated.

I have been following closely the process to establish a permanent international criminal court and continue to keep apprised of the Preparatory Commission proceedings in New York so as to ensure international human rights standards shall be fully respected in all aspects of the court’s role, functions and procedures. My Office is considering whether it could provide technical cooperation to assist Governments to ratify and implement the Rome Statute, and if so, how this could best be achieved. I shall continue to urge all Governments that have not already done so, to sign and ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and wherever necessary, to adopt implementing domestic law to ensure the Court’s requests, orders and decisions meet full compliance. Sixty ratifications are needed to see the International Criminal Court commence its work. Widespread ratification and the active and sustained support of all States are essential to ensure the Court can fulfill its lofty purposes and to make it as universal as possible.

I wish you well in your discussions.