Our Permanent Representative to the United Nations, ambassador Peter Thomson has emphasised why Fiji placed importance on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) during the assembly of State Parties this week.
Fiji is one of the few countries in the Pacific region to have incorporated the statute’s provisions within its domestic law, in the form of the Crimes Decree.
The International Criminal Court is an independent international organisation, and is not part of the UN system. Its seat is at The Hague in the Netherlands.
The ICC, governed by the Rome Statute, is the first permanent treaty-based international criminal court established to help end impunity for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community.
Over the past week, Fiji has been represented at the ninth session of the assembly, which is meeting at the United Nations in New York from December 6 to10.
The Fiji delegation is being led by the Permanent Representative of Fiji to the United Nations, ambassador Peter Thomson, supported by counselor Luke Daunivalu and first secretary Esala Nayasi.
The Fiji statement to the assembly welcomed the Republic of Bangladesh, Seychelles, Moldova and St. Lucia as new State Parties to the Rome Statute. These new members bring the total number of State Parties to 114.
Ambassador Thomson pointed out that only 15 of the 53 UN member states from Asia and the Pacific Islands were State Parties to the Rome Statute.
He also drew notice that no Pacific Islanders were in its employ and only one Asian was listed as a litigator at the ICC.
The Fiji delegation called for closer consideration of these imbalances and encouraged those member states that have yet to ratify the statute to do so.