31.5.2011   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 161/78

A.

whereas the EU is a staunch supporter of the ICC and promotes the universality, and defends the integrity, of the Rome Statute with a view to protecting and enhancing the independence, legitimacy and effectiveness of the international judicial process,

B.

whereas achieving the widest possible ratification and implementation of the Rome Statute has also been an EU objective during enlargement negotiations and in the process of accession by new EU Member States, and whereas the ratification and implementation of the Rome Statute should be also an important objective for the EU in its relations with other partners, in particular the United States, China, Russia and Israel,

C.

whereas the EU systematically pursues the inclusion of an ICC clause in negotiating mandates and in agreements with third countries,

D.

whereas respect for, and the promotion and safeguarding of, the universality of human rights is part of the Union’s ethical and legal acquis and one of the cornerstones of European unity and integrity (12),

E.

whereas the role of the EU as a global player has increased in recent decades,

F.

whereas its Special Representatives promote EU policies and interests in troubled regions and countries and play an active role in efforts to consolidate peace, stability and the rule of law,

G.

whereas, in April 2006, the EU became the first regional organisation to sign an agreement with the ICC on cooperation and assistance (13),

H.

whereas the EU has provided more than EUR 40 million over 10 years under the EIDHR financial instrument for projects aimed at supporting the ICC and international criminal justice,

I.

whereas the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly has been active in ensuring that international criminal justice is included in the revised ACP-EU Partnership Agreement (Cotonou Agreement) and has adopted several resolutions aimed at mainstreaming the fight against impunity in international development cooperation and relevant political dialogue,

J.

whereas this Review Conference represents a key opportunity for the States Parties, as well as non-State Parties, civil society and other stakeholders, strongly to reaffirm their commitment to justice and accountability,

K.

whereas States Parties have seized the opportunity of the Review Conference to go beyond the proposed amendments to the Rome Statute and to take stock of the ICC more than 10 years after its founding and evaluate more broadly the state of international criminal justice, focusing on four major themes, namely: complementarity, cooperation, the impact of the Rome Statute system on victims and affected communities, and peace and justice,

L.

whereas, with 111 States Parties to the ICC, some regions, such as the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, are still under-represented,

M.

whereas cooperation among states, international organisations and the ICC is essential for the effectiveness and success of the international criminal justice system, in particular in terms of law-enforcement capacity,

N.

whereas, on 19 April 2010, for the first time since the creation of the ICC, a request was submitted to it for a finding of non-cooperation by a state,

O.

whereas the premise underlying the principle of complementarity, on which the Rome Statute is founded, is that it is for the state itself to investigate and, where appropriate, to prosecute persons suspected of having committed crimes under international law,

P.

whereas in most conflict situations where justice has not been incorporated as part of the peacemaking process there has been a return to violence,

1.

Reiterates its strong support for the ICC and its aims; stresses that the Rome Statute was ratified by all the EU Member States as an essential component of the democratic principles and values of the Union and calls, therefore, upon the Member States to comply fully with the Statute as part of the EU acquis;

2.

Highlights the importance of the choice of an African country, Uganda, to host this Review Conference, and expresses support for the Court’s request to open a liaison office to the African Union in Addis Ababa, while recognising the universal dimension of the ‘Rome Statute system’;

3.

Underlines the importance of the principle of universality of the Rome Statute and calls on the Vice-President of the Commission/ High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy actively to promote accession to and ratification of the Statute;

4.

Reiterates its position that no immunity agreement should allow impunity of any individual accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide; welcomes the announcement of the US administration that no new immunity agreements will be concluded and calls on the USA and its partners to abandon the existing ones;

5.

Urges the Member States to participate in the Review Conference at the highest possible level, including Heads of State and Government, and to publicly reaffirm their commitment to the ICC;

6.

Encourages the Member States to make pledges reaffirming their commitment to the ICC and highlighting practical steps that they plan to take in support of it, by promising inter alia to implement the Rome Statute, ratify and implement the Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Court (APIC), work with other states that have fewer capabilities in order to promote universal acceptance of the Court, and affirm their contribution to strengthening the system of complementarity and cooperation, notably with regard to impact on victims and affected communities, as well as other areas of the Rome Statute;

7.

Firmly supports the inclusion in Article 5.1 of the Rome Statute of the crime of aggression within the ICC’s material jurisdiction, regarding which the Special Working Group of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute has agreed that, for the purpose of the Statute, ‘crime of aggression’ means ‘the planning, preparation, initiation or execution, by a person in a position effectively to exercise control over or to direct the political or military action of a State, of an act of aggression which, by its character, gravity and scale, constitutes a manifest violation of the Charter of the United Nations’;

8.

Strongly affirms that any decision on the definition of a crime of aggression must be respectful of the Court’s independence; recommends that states should adopt the proposal that does not require any jurisdictional filter to determine whether an act of aggression has been committed before the ICC prosecutor can proceed with an investigation; and that if the Review Conference decides that a jurisdictional filter must be established, they should require that the determination of whether an act of aggression has been committed be conducted by the relevant Chamber in the course of the legal proceedings already set out in the Rome Statute;

9.

Calls on the Member States to engage meaningfully in the stocktaking exercise by actively participating in the official panel discussions as well as the events organised by civil society (and other stakeholders) on the margins of the official conference;

10.

Urges the Member States also to take the opportunity of the Review Conference to reaffirm their commitment to the Court through specific pledges on the four stocktaking themes and to honour those commitments;

11.

Supports the ICC during this Review Conference in the process of stocktaking on every stage of the implementation and impact of the Rome Statute, bearing in mind the perspective of victims and affected communities;

12.

Is concerned about the impact of the Rome Statute system on victims, individuals and communities affected by the crimes under the ICC’s jurisdiction; considers it essential to ensure that victims and affected communities have access to information about, and understand the work of, the Court, and that victims’ rights and interests should be a primary concern for the Rome Statute community, bearing in mind that the ICC is a judicial institution that complements the primary role of states in providing protection and facilitating access to justice and effective reparations for victims, whether individually or collectively; considers that the Member States should:

13.

Reiterates its call to the Member States to ensure full cooperation between States Parties, signatory states and the Court, in accordance with Article 86 of the Rome Statute, in order to respect the object and purpose under which, according to its Preamble, ‘the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole must not go unpunished’, by the following means:

14.

Welcomes the revision and discussion of Article 124 (‘transitional provision’) of the Rome Statute, which allows states to choose not to have their nationals subject to the Court’s jurisdiction over war crimes for a seven-year period after ratification, and calls for its prompt deletion from the Statute so that the law is applied equally to all suspects of alleged war crimes committed in the territories of, or by nationals of, States Parties to the Statute;

15.

Calls on the Member States to prioritise the inclusion as a war crime within the jurisdiction of the court of the use of certain weapons in the context of an armed conflict not of an international character, in accordance with the Belgian proposal for amendments to Article 8 of the Rome Statute, submitted to the 8th session of the Assembly of States Parties and extending criminalisation of the use of poison, poisoned weapons, asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and all analogous liquids, materials or devices, as well as the use of bullets that expand or flatten in the body, to armed conflicts not of an international character;

16.

Stresses the effectiveness of the principle of complementarity of the Court, which is the foundation of the comprehensive system of international criminal justice (the Rome Statute system) and under which the primary duty of States Parties to investigate and prosecute international crimes is clearly reinforced by the complementary (subsidiary) jurisdiction of the ICC;

17.

Is deeply convinced that, during the discussions in Kampala, the Member States should:

18.

Urges all States Parties to the Rome Statute, especially the EU Member States, to enact or implement national legislation ensuring that they can cooperate fully with the ICC;

19.

Urges all States Parties to the Rome Statute to enter into agreements with the Court on victim and witness relocation and enforcement of sentences;

20.

Calls on the Union, the Member States and other international donors to support reform processes and national capacity-building efforts aimed at strengthening the independent judiciary, the law-enforcement sector and the penitentiary system in all developing countries directly affected by the commission of Rome Statute crimes, thus ensuring effective implementation of the principle of complementarity and also compliance by states with the decisions of the Court;

21.

Call on the States Parties to adopt a resolution, based on the discussions in Kampala, highlighting the importance of delivering effective justice to victims, in the context of fair and impartial trials;

22.

Calls on the EU Member States to renew their commitment to the ICC for the future;

23.

Supports the proposal made by high-level representatives of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC to adopt the 17th of July, which is the day of the adoption of the Rome Statute in 1998, as the Day of International Criminal Justice;

24.

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States and the candidate countries.