On 15 May 2014, the President of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Judge Sang-Hyun Song, and the President of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute, H.E. Ms. Tiina Intelmann, spoke at a Seminar on the Kampala Amendments held in Brdo, Slovenia, with a special focus on the crime of aggression. President Song said that “the advent of the ICC and the broader Rome Statute system has changed the way the world thinks – and increasingly also, acts – in relation to grave international crimes”. In her panel intervention, President Intelmann stressed her belief that States should consider ratifying both of the Kampala Amendments as soon as possible: “the Kampala Amendments are a fundamental tool to support the establishment a rules-based international order, where law prevails over force.” Speaking later at a press conference, President Song stated that while only the States Parties can collectively activate the ICC’s ability to exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression, there were strong arguments for doing so sooner rather than later. “First of all, armed conflicts have an immensely destructive effect on the lives of thousands of people and indeed entire nations. War is the ultimate tragedy that any society can encounter. Secondly, aggression is not only a grave crime in its own right but often leads to other atrocity crimes within the ICC’s jurisdiction, such as war crimes and the crimes against humanity. Finally, as it is well recognized, the crime of aggression poses the most severe threat to international peace and security. Aggressive war anywhere is a threat to peace everywhere”, summarised President Song. While in Slovenia, President Song met H.E. Mr Karl Erjavec, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, and thanked him for Slovenia’s strong support to the ICC, including through Slovenia’s valuable contributions to the Trust Fund for Victims and the recent ratification of the Kampala. Minister Erjavec pledged Slovenia’s continued support to the ICC. President Intelmann met with Slovenia’s State Secretary, H.E. Mr Bogdan Benko on means to promote universality in the region. She also used the opportunity of the wide participation from the Eastern European Region to meet with representatives from Armenia, with whom she discussed the prospects of a forthcoming ratification of the Rome Statute. President Song further delivered a university lecture at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, where he received an honorary medal. On Friday 16 May 2014, President Song travelled to Zagreb, Croatia, to meet H.E. Ms Vesna Pusić, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, and H.E. Mr Orsat Miljenić, Minister of Justice. Croatia was the first country from South-East Europe to ratify the Rome Statute and has already ratified the Kampala amendments. Judge Song conveyed the ICC’s gratitude for Croatia’s longstanding support, while Minister Pusić and Minister Miljenić expressed Croatia’s willingness to further strengthen the excellent cooperation with the ICC. The same day, President Song spoke at the University of Zagreb on the ICC’s contribution to international justice. In his lecture, he touched upon institutional and jurisdictional differences between the ICC and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and expressed his personal regret that in 1991, when the war broke out in the former Yugoslavia, there was no international criminal tribunal already in place to deter the commission of atrocity crimes. “With a permanent ICC, the promise of a less violent world is more realistic”, concluded President Song. On her part, on 16 May 2014, President Intelmann travelled to Geneva to address the “Group of Friends of the International Criminal Court”. She provided an update on the work ahead for the Assembly in 2014 and the ongoing priorities and needs of the Court. She welcomed the commitment and coordination among States Parties in Geneva who have taken advantage of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism to further the goals of the Court, including universality, domestic implementation of the Rome Statute, ratification of or accession to the Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the ICC and the Kampala Amendments, and cooperation with the Court. President Intelmann discussed with States Parties various means to take the next step and promote the implementation of the numerous ICC-related recommendations accepted by States under review at the UPR. In Geneva also, at the Academy of International Humanitarian Law, President Intelmann joined a technical seminar on a project of a Convention on Crimes Against Humanity. At this discussion, Ambassador Intelmann highlighted the fundamental role played by domestic legislation to prosecute crimes against humanity and of the legal gap of mechanisms that promote mutual legal assistance among states to support domestic prosecutions. During their visits, President Song and President Intelmann gave several interviews to the media and met a number of seminar participants from other States of the Eastern European Group, both States Parties and those not yet party to the Rome Statute, urging the latter the join the evolving system of international criminal justice.

                              By Ms. Abir Ali, Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of  Lebanon. Part of my speech, during the Lebanese Embassy Business Event 15 May, 2014. Despite the difficult political situation in Lebanon the private sector remains the driving force behind Lebanon with the strongest economic sectors being the banking sector, the real estate sector and tourism. She invited the Dutch companies to invest in the agricultural sector stressing the high quality of the Lebanese crop; apples being an example and she also invited them to discover and invest in the olive oil and Lebanese wines. Another sector that she mentioned and that is expending is fashion design. She also invited the Dutch companies to invest in the energy and all energy related sectors in Lebanon, once this sector takes off. She concluded stressing the importance of the Lebanese Trade Delegation that proves a dedication and strong will towards strengthening the relations between Lebanon and the Netherlands”.  

Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, re-opens the preliminary examination of the situation in Iraq Today, 13 May 2014, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (“ICC”), Mrs Fatou Bensouda, announced that she has decided to re-open the preliminary examination of the situation in Iraq, previously concluded in 2006, following submission of further information to the Office of the Prosecutor in January 2014 in accordance with article 15 of the Rome Statute. The new information received by the Office alleges the responsibility of officials of the United Kingdom for war crimes involving systematic detainee abuse in Iraq from 2003 until 2008.  Iraq is a not a State Party to the Rome Statute, however, the ICC has jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed on the territory of Iraq by nationals of States Parties. The re-opened preliminary examination will analyse, in particular, alleged crimes attributed to the armed forces of the United Kingdom deployed in Iraq between 2003 and 2008. During the preliminary examination, the Prosecutor shall consider issues of jurisdiction, admissibility and the interests of justice, in order to decide whether or not the criteria to open an investigation under article 53(1) of the Rome Statute have been met.  No decision on the opening of an investigation will be taken until a thorough analysis of all the relevant information is completed by the Office. Background On 9 February 2006, Mr Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the then Prosecutor of the ICC announced his decision not to seek authorisation to initiate an investigation of the situation in Iraq because based on the information available to the Prosecutor at the time, the required gravity threshold of the Rome Statute was not met. In that decision, the Prosecutor indicated that this conclusion could be reconsidered in the light of new facts or evidence, in accordance with article 15(6) of the Rome Statute. On 10 January 2014, the Office of the Prosecutor received a new communication from the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (“ECCHR”) together with the Public Interest Lawyers (“PIL”), alleging the responsibility of officials of the United Kingdom for war crimes involving systematic detainee abuse in Iraq from 2003 until 2008. The United Kingdom deposited its instrument of ratification of the Rome Statute on 4 October 2001. The ICC has therefore jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed on the territory of the United Kingdom, or by UK nationals as of 1 July 2002, representing the date of the entry into force of the Rome Statute. Based on an initial assessment of the information received, the 10 January 2014 communication provides further information that was not available to the Office in 2006. In particular, the communication alleges a higher number of cases of ill-treatment of detainees and provides further details on the factual circumstances and the geographical and temporal scope of the alleged crimes. The Prosecutor will therefore conduct a preliminary examination in order to analyse the seriousness of the information received, in accordance with the requirements of article 15(2) of the Rome Statute, and ultimately determine whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation.