Left to right: ICC Registrar Peter Lewis, Cabo Verde First Lady H.E. Lígia Dias Fonseca, Cabo Verde President H.E. Jorge Carlos de Almeida Fonseca, ICC President Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji and ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda ©ICC-CPI.
On 11 December 2018, H.E. Mr. Jorge Carlos de Almeida Fonseca, President of the Republic of Cabo Verde, visited the International Criminal Court (ICC) to meet with the President of the Court, Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, the Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, and the Registrar Peter Lewis. The President was decorated with the title of ‘Distinguished Honorary Fellow of the International Criminal Court’.
ICC President Eboe-Osuji stated: “At the UN General Assembly of 2017, the Prime Minister of Cabo Verde said that support for the ICC is an obligation that the present generation owes to future ones. As the Head of State of Cabo Verde, His Excellency Dr. Fonseca is the very personification of that policy.
He is a jurist in his own right and a poet. But most of all, he is a statesman of exemplary credentials on rule of law. He is a very staunch supporter of the ICC and we are greatly honoured that he found time to visit the Court.”
H.E. President Fonseca reaffirmed his support for the ICC and stated: “I express the commitment of my country, of the Cabo-Verdeans, with the values and the principles supporting the creation of the ICC. We are with the ICC because we are convinced of the relevant values of the struggle against serious crimes.” President Fonseca added that “Cabo Verde as a democracy and a State based on the rule of law is always with justice, respect of international law, democracy and liberties.”
The President of the Republic of Cabo Verde was accompanied by the First Lady, H.E. Ms. Lígia Dias Fonseca, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Communities and Minister of Defense H.E. Mr. Luís Filipe Tavares, and the Minister of Interior H.E. Mr. Paulo Rocha.
The visit of President Fonseca to the ICC highlights Cabo Verde’s support to the Court and the joint efforts deployed in the fight against the impunity of the perpetrators of the most serious crimes that affect the international community as a whole. Cabo Verde signed the Rome Statute on 28 December 2000 and ratified it on 10 October 2011.
