RIGHTS: Bonino Looks for US Support for Intl Criminal Court

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

WASHINGTON, May 11 1998 (IPS) - European Commissioner for Human Rights, Emma Bonino, took her fight for the establishment of an effective International Criminal Court (ICC) to Washington Monday and declared the world was changingbut not for the better.

Bonino, Secretary of the Radical Party in her native Italy, told a luncheon gathering at the National Press Club she planned two days of meetings with Administration officials, members of Congress and non-governmental organisations to “clearup misunderstandings on the part of sceptics who doubt the need for an ICC.”

“Our world is changing – but not for the better,” she said. This century – which had seen two world wars, genocide and other conflicts – had shown there was a need to establish a permanent International Criminal Court for trying crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.

In June, the United Nations is convening a diplomatic conference in Rome “hopefully to agree on the terms of reference for this new institution,” she noted.

Bonino said she was aware “the achievement of this complex diplomatic task may require more political attention in some capitals than has been the case until now.”

She referred to the mass killings in Cambodia, Yugoslavia and Rwanda and asked “how could anyone who has committed such horrible crimes, not be held accountable for them?”

Bonino sought to allay concerns of many U.S. politicians opposed to the ICC that peacekeepers may face increasing threat of being prosecuted “for actions taken in the course of difficult international missions.”

“I believe there is a large degree of misunderstanding about the role and function of the Court,” she saiod. “The principle of complementarity will ensure that peacekeepers will ensure that peacekeepers will be tried by their own national systems. Moreover, the Court will only have jurisdiction over the three core crimes – genocide, crimes against humanity and serious war crimes.”

Bonino, who was arrested in Afghanistan by Taleban fighters last year, said in answer to a question that the extremist laws affecting women introducedd by the Muslim Teleban rulers, constituted “crimes against humanity.”

“Let us put an end to the growing feeling that, every time a voice is raised in an attempt to place the ethical dimension at the centre of the debate on the conflicts by which our century has been beset, there comes the explanation that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile abstract principles and values with political action – governed by the pursuit of realism,” she said.

“From this point of view principles, however commendable they may be, do not provide a sound basis for foreign policy issues. What are needed are realistic solutions.”

Bonino said she was convinced that a foreign policy which is based solely on interests, whether national or regional, was no longer sustainable. “what we need is a foreign policy firmly anchered in ethics, and based on universally-accepted values and principles,” she said.