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Informal Daily Summary from the ASP: Thursday 26 November 2009

26 Nov 2009

Dear all,

Please find below an informal summary of the eighth and final day of the eighth session of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which concluded today in The Hague.

All ASP-related documents produced by the CICC are available on the CICC website at: http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/?mod=asp8

Please note that official ASP documents can be found on the ICC website at: http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ASP/Sessions/Documentation/8th+Session/Eighth+session+of+the+Assembly+of+States+Parties.htm

Please do not hesitate to contact us should you need further information.

Regards,
CICC Secretariat
www.coalitionfortheicc.org

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ASP DAY 8: INFORMAL DAILY SUMMARY

Today was the last day of the eighth session of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute of the ICC. All reports were presented in the plenary session for adoption.  They will shortly be made available on the ASP website at: http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ASP/Sessions/Documentation/8th+Session/Eighth+session+of+the+Assembly+of+States+Parties.htm

A resumed session will take place at the end of March 2010.

The Review Conference will be held from 31 May to 11 June for 10 working days in Kampala, Uganda.

The Ninth session of the ASP will take place as early as possible in December 2010 in New York during 5 working days. The Tenth session of the ASP will be held in The Hague with a prior resumed session in New York during which six judges will be elected.

* REVIEW CONFERENCE:
The Working group on the Review Conference, chaired by Facilitators Stella Orino from Kenya and Marcelo Bohlke from Brazil, finalized discussions on its draft resolution (ICC-ASP/8/L.5/Rev.1) and its report (ICC-ASP/8/WGRC/CRP.1/Rev.1). These documents were adopted without a vote.

* OMNIBUS RESOLUTION:
The Omnibus Resolution “Strengthening the International Criminal Court and the Assembly of States Parties” (ICC-ASP/8/L.2) led by Emmanuel Bichet from Switzerland was adopted.

* ICC PREMISES:
During informal consultations on the permanent premises of the Court held today, the Chair of the oversight Committee H.E. Lyn Parker, Ambassador of the United Kingdom of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Netherlands, announced that the architectural design contract should be awarded to Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects (Denmark), second prize winner of the architectural design competition. The draft resolution (ICC-ASP/8/L.7) on the permanent premises of the International Criminal Court was adopted without a vote, with two minor changes.

* OVERSIGHT MECHANISM:
Facilitator Akbar Khan, Director of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division of the Commonwealth, presented the draft resolution on the establishment of an oversight mechanism (ICC-ASP/8/L.8) that shall ensure that there should be no impunity for criminal misconduct by the staff members and Court Officials. The resolution was then adopted without a vote. The mechanism will be established initially with investigative power only but with the perspective of including evaluation and inspection functions at a later stage.

* COOPERATION:
Ambassador Yves Haesendonck (Belgium), Focal Point on cooperation, gave a brief overview of the discussion thus far in relation the draft resolution on cooperation. He confirmed that a consensus had been reached in this regard by States Parties.  The stand-alone draft resolution on the issue of cooperation (ICC-ASP/8/L.6) was adopted without a vote.

* BUDGET:
The Facilitator for the Working Group on the Budget Ambassador Francisco Urbina, announced that following informal consultations on the budget no written report on the Budget would be issued. In its place, the Facilitator provided an oral report detailing the discussions, informal and formal, that had taken place with respect to certain CBF recommendations. The Resolution (ICC-ASP/8/L.4) was adopted. This included the adoption of all the CBF recommendations in particular that of legal aid for defence on the condition that the Court would be given flexibility to redistribute funds to cover overspending or recourse to the contingency fund and in addition that the AU Liaison Office would be headed by a D-1 Staff member, and supported by GS OL and local GTA position for a driver. The GTA psychologist post within the VWU will be subject of further discussion at the 14th session of the CBF.

Facilitator on family visits Miia Aro-Sanchez First Secretary of the Embassy of Finland in The Hague presented the draft resolution on family visits (ICC-ASP/8/L.9), which was then adopted without a vote. The resolution reaffirms that this consideration is not based on any legal right but humanitarian consideration and encourages the Court to find alternative creative ways to family visits to encourage family links. Italy and France made limitative declarations for the record.

The report of the credentials committee was introduced and adopted without a vote.