Yesterday, the Convenor of the NGO Coalition for an International Criminal Court (the Coalition), William Pace, right, visited the Human Rights House in Oslo, on the invitation of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. During a seminar  Mr. Pace set out the International Criminal Court´s (ICC) main challenges for the near future. He was, however, based on the many achievement in the last century in the field of human rights, optimistic. (08-JUN-06)

Text: HRH / Ralph Pluimert. Picture: HRH / Niels Jacob Harbitz

At present more than 100 countries have ratified the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC and hence the first ever permanent, treaty based, international court to promote the rule of law has been established. Mr. Pace made during his presentation clear that already the present ICC-achievements have gone beyond many people’s expectations. When Pace started as a convenor in the Coalition, many of his colleagues didn’t expect an international court could come into existence within the next 100-200 year. In particular the United States have always been opposed to the realization of the court since it interferes with its national sovereignty. But today the ICC has become reality and is a new milestone in the history of human rights. Pace: “The last century the progress in the field of human rights has been extraordinary.” But on the other hand, apart from the US, other important countries like the Russian Federation, India, the People´s Republic of China and Iran have abstained from ratification of the Rome Statute and Pace recognized that this was a major challenge.

Challenges
At present the ICC is undertaking investigations into crimes committed in Darfur, DR Congo (DRC) and Northern Uganda. In March 2006, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo was heard by the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber in relation to the crimes committed in DRC. The Court is also investigating, although not officially, the situation in Ivory Coast and the Central African Republic. Nonetheless, the investigations meet many challenges. The ICC doesn’t have an own police force, which makes it in practice very difficult to arrest suspects. Moreover the possibilities for witness protection are very limited, which makes testifying for the court highly dangerous. The ICC also puts many humanitarian organisations in a difficult position since their work needs to be neutral and perceived neutral by the communities they assist. Not to mention the dilemma of justice (punishing the perpetrator) versus peace (reconciliation) in the human rights community.

Network
The Coalition consists of over 2,000 civil society organisations working to support a fair, effective and independent ICC and is organised around national and regional networks and sectoral caucuses such as women and children. Its task are amongst other things the effective participation of civil society in the session of the Assembly of State Parties, providing technical expertise and serving in an advisory role to governments, the ICC and other institutions and promoting the universal acceptance and ratification the Rome Statute. Pace said that one of the main tasks for the Coalition for the coming time was to have more key-countries sign and ratify the Statute.