The panel on the 20th anniversary of the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court (ICC) held as part of the Bled Strategic Forum (BSF) on Tuesday revolved around reactions to the recent dismissive statement by US National Security Advisor John Bolton, with the panellists stressing the independence of the ICC and expressing the conviction that it would continue strongly.
The panel dubbed International Criminal Court: 20 Years after Rome – Setting a Path for the Future, started just hours after Bolton said that the “ICC is dead to us”, denouncing the legitimacy of the Hague-based court.
Mr Phakiso Mochochoko, Director of the Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division at the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC, said that the court was an independent and impartial institution protecting the victims of horrendous crimes.
“If you talk with the victims – the women, men and children subjected to those crimes, they would not share Mister Bolton’s views,” he said, adding that the court would continue to do its work and investigate.
Dr Amal Jadou, Ambassador, Assistant Foreign Minister on European Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine, said that what she would tell Bolton was “stop crimes and we will not go to the ICC.”
Richard Goldstone, Retired Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, wondered why Bolton was concerned about the court when he believed that it was dying, noting that the US had assisted the ICC on several occasions.
While noting that very crucial states such as the US, Russia, China and India were not state parties of the ICC, Prof. Dr Ernest Petrič, Senior Advisor to the President of the Republic of Slovenia, said that perhaps “maybe it is better at this early stage”.
“Maybe it is better that the big ones are not a part of it, so that they don’t try to ‘kidnap it’”, Petrič said, adding that he believed that the court was a success as it had remained independent.
Mr O – Gon Kwon, President of the Assembly of States Parties of the ICC, read a statement in response to Bolton’s comments, saying that the “ICC is an independent and impartial judicial institutions acting strictly within the Rome Statute.”
“It is a judicial and not political institution and states respect its impartiality,” he said, adding that it dealt with the most serious crimes of concern of the international community.
The panellists also noted that the jurisdiction of the ICC was only complementary to national jurisdictions of the member states, and that it was practically helpless without the cooperation of the national authorities.
“If they do not like the ICC, the states should investigate and prosecute crimes themselves,” concluded Mochochoko.
