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ICC anniversary: Support for court, concern at challenges

UNITED NATIONS– On the 20th anniversary of the statute that created the International Criminal Court, supporters praised the tribunal’s actions to punish perpetrators of the world’s worst atrocities and expressed concerns about the enormous challenges and political attacks it faces.

General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak told a meeting on Tuesday’s anniversary that the ICC has “vindicated the rights of victims and survivors” of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. And “it is also contributing to preventing others from suffering similar fates,” he said.

But Lajcak stressed that “we must continue to resist any and all encroachments on international law.”

Liechtenstein’s Foreign Minister Aurelia Frick said the court’s “big achievements are matched by enormous challenges.”

“Multilateral diplomacy today is in a significantly weakened state,” she said. “What we witness is that there is a return to a nationalist agenda and skepticism of the rule of law.”

The Rome Statute was adopted on July 17, 1998, but the ICC wasn’t officially established until July 1, 2002, with a mandate to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It currently has 123 state parties who are bound by its provisions, which include arresting all those sought by the court.

While the Security Council has used its power under the Rome Statute to refer conflicts in Sudan’s western Darfur region and in Libya to the ICC, calls for the U.N.’s most powerful body to refer Syria, and more recently Myanmar, to the tribunal have failed.

Liechtenstein was one of nine countries sponsoring the U.N. meeting along with the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, which represents 2,500 NGOs in 51 countries, and Parliamentarians for Global Action.

ICC deputy prosecutor James Stewart told the meeting “there is reason to celebrate” because court “is having an impact.”

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