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In Rome, 120 Countries Committed to Ending Impunity:
Will Promises Be Kept?

Ten years ago in Rome, diplomats from 160 countries and representatives from some 200 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) came together for five weeks of difficult and delicate negotiations to say yes—to the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and to the resolve that “never again” would the world sit idle as entire populations lay decimated by undeterred génocidaires.

“In retrospect, we had a window of opportunity to establish this Court between the end of the Cold War and September 11th. We also had this tremendous emotion: guilt, pain, horror, disgust generated by the genocides in Rwanda and Yugoslavia and other places and the sense that the international community had failed to deal with these effectively,” reflects Convenor of the American NGO Coalition for the ICC (AMICC) and Rome Conference participant John Washburn. “We also had an established body of international law that had only to be customized. This fact helped make the ICC a reality along with the favorable time period and above all, this emotion that pushed people to transcend themselves as representatives of governments. In many cases, governments transcended their addiction to narrow national interests. As a result, the negotiation process for such a complicated treaty took place at warp speed.”

On 17 July 1998, the Statute was adopted with 120 countries in support, seven opposed (including China, Iraq, Israel, Qatar and the United States) and 21 states abstaining.
The suspense leading up to the historic vote was at times dramatic. For more than one month, the negotiations proceeded slowly, with agreement on some 90 of 128 articles in the Statute. Most of the major issues remained unresolved, including the composition of core crimes, the role of the UN Security Council, the Court’s jurisdiction and the independence of the prosecutor.

Mere hours before the 17 July deadline, then-conference chair and current ICC President Philippe Kirsch daringly issued a compromise “take it or leave it” package addressing all the oustanding issues. In a last-minute attempt to undermine the adoption of the Statute, the United States and Indian governments proposed treaty-wrecking amendments. Both efforts were strongly voted down. In what was one of the most emotional moments in the history of international law, the Rome Statute was adopted a few minutes before midnight with delegates erupting into joyful applause and tears.

“Looking back ten years later,” says Convenor of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) William Pace, “the achievement of the governments and NGOs in Rome seems to me to be an even greater miracle now than it was then. This was momentous lawmaking.”

Civil Society Sets the Tone in Rome
The participation of CICC NGOs—by far the largest and arguably the best organized delegation at the Conference—was unprecedented. For Maria Solis Garcia, conference participant and a Guatemalan women’s rights advocate who is currently director of Asociación La Cuerda, the “CICC was a truly global space where everybody united energies and forces to dream, think and work together to fight impunity,” even though the NGOs converging in Rome often held contrasting views.

The Coalition and its members produced daily reports about the conference along with position papers on contentious issues. Meanwhile, candlelit marches and a “lie-down” for justice mobilized public support for the Court.

Within the Coalition, 12 NGO issue teams worked around the clock to understand and influence government delegates. At times, NGO participants stood outside closed-door meetings to lobby exiting diplomats and press them for accounts that would inform daily CICC strategy sessions. Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, says “NGOs surprised the government delegations by the significance of our substantive contributions, our strategic acuity and ultimately the influence we had on the conference.”

Civil society had an important impact on the Statute’s robust provisions on gender crimes and its support for the unprecedented participation of victims in the proceedings. Solis Garcia calls the Rome Statute, with its landmark recognition of sexual violence as a crime against humanity for the first time under international law, “a victory for gender justice and the elimination of all kinds of violence against women.”

The Road Ahead: Reflecting on a Decade and Preparing for the Future
To mark the upcoming 10-year anniversary of the adoption of the Rome Statute on 17 July 2008, the Coalition will be hosting and participating in high-level advocacy events around that time in New York, The Hague and South Africa with government delegates, UN officials and Court officials in attendance. At each of these events, there will be a preview of the highly anticipated ICC documentary The Reckoning by Skylight Pictures (see www.skylightpictures.com for more).

In addition, at noon in their respective time zones, Coalition members around the world will read aloud a tenth anniversary message to highlight the growing global consensus that impunity must end. CICC member events range from a music concert in Bahrain to a judicial colloquium with ICC Judge Navanetham Pillay in Nigeria.

As part of its broader commemoration activities, the Coalition is urging states to join the Court over the course of the 2008 anniversary year. The focus is on those states known to be close to ratification, including the Czech Republic, Indonesia, Moldova, Nepal, Suriname and Yemen. Setting the example is Madagascar, which had been targeted and ratified on 14 March 2008.

The Coalition is also encouraging all states to issue strong public statements in support of the Rome Statute on the anniversary date. Furthermore, the CICC is pushing states parties to this year ratify the Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Court and finalize national implementation of the Statute.

Meanwhile, there is an ever-present need to overcome threats to the Court’s viability, including in 2010 when the Rome Statute Review Conference is scheduled. “More work is needed to make sure that this treaty and institution survives and prospers,” says Pace. Adds Conference participant David Donat Cattin, director of the International Law and Human Rights Program of Parliamentarians for Global Action: “Two-thirds of the world is still not covered by the ICC automatic jurisdiction: China, India, Russia and the United States have still not ratified the Statute. These major powers and all who were in Rome—either for or against us—must now join this Court. This may take years and political change, but this must be the hope that drives us all.”