Madame President,
The Czech Republic would like to express its gratitude to the Argentinian presidency to the Security Council for conducting this open debate and both briefers not only for today's briefings, but also for their tremendous work. As suggested in the concept paper, the Czech Republic wish to focus on one of the possible ways of improving Security Council’s work which is the relationship between this main organ of the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Madame President,
The CzechRepublic is strongly committed to the idea of the international criminal justice, in particular the ICC. Due to our country’s historical experience with perpetration of serious crimes under international law and serious human rights abuses during the Second World War and the post-war era we endorse the Court’s existence. The role of the ICC in the fight against impunity is irreplaceable and we stand ready to support it wherever possible. Nevertheless, we believe that the issue of cooperation with the Court goes far beyond the relations between the Court and the States Parties to the Rome Statute, and that it must be addressed in a much broader spectrum of relevant actors, involving the United Nations, in particular the Security Council.
In this regard, the Security Council has – in our view – a special responsibility to close the impunity gap by making referrals to the ICC.In this context we recall, that some situations, mostly internal armed conflicts around the world, where the most serious crimes of concern to the international community have been committed or even continue to be perpetrated today, should be referred by the Security Council to the ICC. Practice of the double standards may have negative impact on promotion of the rule of law and international justice.
However, the Court has not received so far the support from the Security Council it needs to fulfill its missions referred to it by the resolutions 1593 (Darfur) and 1970 (Libya). We regret the lack of effective response from the Security Council to follow-up of its referrals. Consequently, we hope that this open debate will be taken as a call by the UN members to act on this matter.
Madame President,
We encourage the Security Council to establish mechanism to follow-up of situations referred by it to the ICC. Specifically, the mechanism should advantage from the Security Council’s power to enforce its own resolutions and ensure that States co-operate with the ICC. Moreover, the Informal Working Group on International Tribunals should be tasked to deal with issues pertaining to ICC referrals. We would also like to recommend that the costs of future referrals should be covered by the UN, similarly as those for the UN ad hoc tribunals. There is a need for consistency in the Security Council’s practice that would then also have a preventative effect.
Thank you, Madame President.