INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY ISSUE
*********************************** 8 March 2002 Volume III / Issue 1 ***********************************
!!! ONLY 5 MORE RATIFICATIONS NEEDED FOR ICC'S ENTRY INTO FORCE !!!
This is the first issue of 2002 of the ICCWomen Newsletter. These are important times for those who have been awaiting the advent of a permanent system of international criminal justice. With 55 ratifications already, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is expected to enter into force in the first half of this year -- an event which will put the perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity on notice that their actions are no longer wholly unreachable by their victims.
In the past year, the Caucus was busy continuing the work of monitoring the ICC process from a gender perspective in addition to expanding our education and training program. The first training of trainers was held in July in Amsterdam and was attended by 23 women from different regions, some of whom were new to the ICC process. Then, in the wake of the events of September 11th, the Caucus' New York staff joined with other colleagues to raise the calls for international justice, and not war, as a response to the attacks and then worked with many others to advocate that the international community seek out the perspectives of Afghan women in the deliberations toward a transitional arrangement there.
In December the Caucus also played a support role for our colleagues in the international effort to bring justice for the former comfort women when the judgement of the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery was issued in The Hague. The Caucus also co-organized a conference on Justice and Accountability which was held immediately after the issuance of the Tokyo Tribunal judgement.
There is a great deal of momentum toward an internationalized system of accountability and women are a vital part of this movement. The Caucus will continue to monitor the ongoing negotiations and other issues related to the establishment of the ICC and gender justice.
In this issue of the ICCWomen Newsletter we will provide an update of the status of some of these issues -- including those relating to the nomination process for the selection of judges and other personnel. In addition, we have included a brief overview of recent international legal developments which are impacting the climate into which the ICC will emerge.
----------------------------------- ----------------------------------- Contents
I. Ratifications II. Preparatory Commission Sessions III. Nomination and Selection of Judges, Prosecutor and Deputy Prosecutors V. International Legal Developments Annex -- Signature and Ratification List ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------
I. ------------------------------------------------------ ONLY FIVE MORE RATIFICATIONS NEEDED FOR ENTRY INTO FORCE ------------------------------------------------------
As of March 7, 2002, the list of States Parties of the Rome Statute grew to 55 after ratifications by Cyprus, Macedonia and Mauritius. With 55 ratifications completed, the countdown to the 60 necessary for the Rome Statute's entry into force has begun. It is widely expected that the 60th ratification will be completed during the month of April which would bring entry into force as early as July 1ST. At that moment, the Court's jurisdiction over genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity will take effect.
Although sixty ratifications are required for entry into force, the Women's Caucus and other NGO's are committed to advocating for ratification far beyond the first sixty to ensure the Court will be regionally and geographically representative. Currently, the configuration of States Parties according to region is as follows: Americas and the Caribbean, 11; Asia and the Pacific, 5; Europe, 27; Middle East and North Africa, 0; and Sub-Saharan African, 12. (A complete list of signatures and ratifications is annexed to this newsletter.)
II. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 2002 PREPARATORY COMMISSION MEETINGS --------------------------------------------------------------------
In October, the UN General Assembly scheduled two additional Preparatory Commission meetings for this year in order to complete the Prepcom's agenda of work prior to the first meeting of the Assembly of States Parties. The first will take place from 8-19 April 2002 and the second, and most likely the final, to take place from 1-12 July 2002 at UN Headquarters in New York. It is expected that the first meeting of the Assembly of States Parties will take place sometime in September at which time the Preparatory Commission's mandate will end.
The workplan for these sessions includes finalization of the draft principles governing the Headquarters Agreement and the First-Year Budget. In addition, at the last Prepcom, two new working groups were created.
The first working group is tasked with the development of documents to be prepared for the Assembly of States Parties, including matters related to the bureau of the Assembly, the Secretariat of the Assembly, procedures for the nomination and election of judges, prosecutor and deputy prosecutors, and a flow-chart containing a detailed timetable and agenda for the initial meetings of the Assembly.
The second working group will deal with remaining financial issues such as remuneration of judges, prosecutors and the registrar in addition to guidelines relating to the victims trust fund. Also, discussions will continue in the working group on the crime of Aggression.
At the conclusion of the most recent meeting of the Preparatory Commission (24 September-5 October 2001), the Preparatory Commission adopted several documents relating to the establishment of the Court. They included: (1) a draft Relationship Agreement between the ICC and the United Nations; (2) Rules of Procedure for the Assembly of States Parties; (3) Financial Rules and Regulations for the Court.
The priority issues for the Women's Caucus in the current phase of negotiations are to ensure that the procedures relating to the nomination and election of judges, prosecutor and deputy prosecutors are transparent and assure time for public review of candidates' records. In addition, the Women's Caucus is concerned that the guidelines and rules relating to the administration of the Victim's Trust Fund, called for in Article 79 of the Rome Statute, fulfill the statute's mandates and concern for victims and survivors. On the issue of Aggression, the Women's Caucus will support those delegations seeking a definition which affirms the Court's independence of the Security Council and further the aims of fairness and independence.
III. -------------------------------------------------------------- NOMINATION and ELECTION of JUDGES, PROSECUTOR and DEPUTY PROSECUTORS --------------------------------------------------------------
The issues relating to the nomination and election of judges, prosecutor and deputy prosecutors will be among the most critical in the first phase of the Court's establishment. The procedures for nominations and elections have not been negotiated yet but are on the agenda for the upcoming prepcoms. We anticipate that the nominations will begin appearing during the first meeting of the Assembly of States Parties.
Past experience with elections of judges to the ad hoc international tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda has demonstrated clearly how problematic these processes have been at the international level, especially with regard to the election of qualified women. During elections for eight permanent posts at the Yugoslav Tribunal in March 2001, there was only one woman candidate on a list of 26 nominations. The sole female candidate was already serving as a judge for the ICTY and was up for re-election. Despite the presence of only one woman on the list, seven rounds of voting passed before she received the required number of votes. A similar experience followed soon after in June 2001 when a list of 64 nominations was put forward with only 14 female candidates.
One problem has been that many countries do not voluntarily comply with various UN mandates and appeals concerning gender mainstreaming and representation. Often, country representatives claim that there are no qualified female candidates for the posts or that announcements were made at the national level and no female candidates came forward. UN officials argue that they are in no position to enforce the mainstreaming mandates when it comes to elections which rely on nominations at the state level.
Another problem, which is not unique to the issue of gender representation, is that the elections are almost always accompanied by a round of political deal-making and vote-trading which have implications for posts in other UN bodies and international organizations.
While the ICC will be a separate institution, guided by an Assembly of States Parties that is fully independent of the United Nations, many observers suspect that the same tendencies and 'informal' procedures will be transferred into the ICC arena. NGO efforts will be to ensure that the process is open and transparent and that civil society and NGO's have an adequate time frame in which to assess the candidates' qualifications. By keeping the process open to public scrutiny, it is hoped that the insider-trading aspect of past negotiations will be curtailed.
A crucial piece of this effort will be to raise awareness of this process among more NGO's who can monitor the national-level nomination process, as this is the starting point for ensuring the selection of qualified candidates and fair gender representation. It is especially vital that women's legal associations and judicial associations in countries that have ratified the Rome Statute involve themselves in these processes as early as possible.
The links between national level NGO's and NGO's monitoring the process at the international level will need to be strengthened in order to be able to get a clear picture of an individual candidate's qualifications and background. National-level NGO's will be in the best position to evaluate a particular candidate for suitability for a post at the ICC. It will be important also to share evaluative criteria in different countries and regions as no one framework will be entirely suitable for all candidates.
The Women's Caucus has developed a short guide to the ICC Nomination Process. For a copy, please send a request to caucus@iccwomen.org.
V. ------------------------------------------------------------ INTERNATIONAL LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS ------------------------------------------------------------
* UN ENDS TALKS WITH CAMBODIA ON SPECIAL TRIBUNAL *
On February 8, 2002, the United Nations officially backed out of talks with Cambodian officials toward a tribunal to prosecute former leaders of the Khmer Rouge.
"The United Nations has concluded that as currently envisaged, the Cambodian court would not guarantee independence, impartiality and objectivity, which is required by the United Nations for it to cooperate with such a court," said Fred Eckhard, the United Nations spokesman, in New York.
Talks between the UN and Cambodia have been ongoing since 1997 and were brought to a halt when Cambodia presented the UN negotiators with an ultimatum on its complex proposal for the trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders. To date, none of the leaders have been prosecuted for the atrocities committed between 1975-1979 which are estimated to have resulted in more than one million deaths.
* UN, SIERRA LEONE COMPLETE AGREEMENT ON SPECIAL COURT *
On 16 January, 2002, the United Nations and Sierra Leone signed the agreement setting up a Special Court for Sierra Leone to try war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Special Court will be a departure from the ad hoc tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in many respects. Sierra Leone requested that the UN set up a court and the two parties then negotiated the terms of a mechanism which will have jurisdiction over a mix of international criminal law crimes and crimes forming part of Sierra Leonean criminal law.
In addition, the Court will include a mix of international and Sierra Leonean judges. The majority of judges in each case will be appointed by the UN Secretary-General. The Chief Prosecutor will also be a foreign appointment but it is expected that most of the staff will be Sierra Leonean. The Court will have jurisdiction to prosecute "those who bear the greatest responsibility" for serious violations of international humanitarian law, crimes against humanity and some provisions of Sierra Leonean criminal law committed during the course of armed conflict waged since November 1996.
* ICJ RULING AFFIRMS IMMUNITY OF DRC FOREIGN MINISTER *
On 14 February 2002, the International Court of Justice determined that an arrest warrant issued by Belgium for the acting Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo was in violation of international law.
In a vote of 13-3, the Court found that Belgium's arrest warrant of April 2000 for Abdulaye Yerodia Ndombasi, an incumbent Minister for Foreign Affairs for DRC, violated international law and order Belgium to cancel the warrant. The Court also state, however, that the immunity enjoyed by acting foreign ministers is not a personal immunity and could not be deemed to continue beyond their service.
The Court also made an important reference to the International Criminal Court and recognized that "an incumbent or former Minister for Foreign Affairs may be subject to criminal proceedings before certain international criminal courts, where they have jurisdiction" and specifically noted the "future International Criminal Court" as well as the Yugoslav and Rwandan tribunals as examples.
---------------- ANNEX ----------------
RATIFICATIONS OF THE ROME STATUTE (55)
Andorra, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Botswana, Canada, Central African Republic, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Dominica, Ecuador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, Venezuela, Yugoslavia
SIGNATORIES (139)
Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Comoros, Congo (Brazzaville), Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Germany, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Former Yugoslav Rep., Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Poland, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, St. Lucia, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela, Yemen, Yugoslavia, Zambia, Zimbabwe
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*END*
Women's Caucus for Gender Justice 33-53 Vernon Blvd. Suite 1 Long Island City, NY 11106 Tel: 718-626-2681 Fax: 718-626-3528 www.iccwomen.org caucus@iccwomen.org
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