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Washington DC
The President of the Assembly of States Parties (“the Assembly”), Ambassador Christian Wenaweser, paid a visit to the Organization of American States (OAS) on 10 March 2011 in Washington D.C. During his visit, the President held a meeting with H.E. Mr. José Miguel Insulza, Secretary-General of the OAS, who shared the conviction of the need to promote the universality of the Court, as a means to combat impunity for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. They both highlighted the importance of the adoption by consensus of United Nations Security Council resolution 1970 (2011) whereby the situation in Libya since 15 February 2011 was referred to the ICC, as it constituted a reaffirmation of the central role played by the Rome Statute system.
President Wenaweser also welcomed the Organization’s support for the Court, as well as the forthcoming exchange of letters between the OAS Secretariat and the Court which would facilitate the cooperation between the two institutions.
Furthermore, President Wenaweser took part in a working meeting on the ICC of the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs of the OAS Permanent Council, which included a high-level dialogue among the permanent representatives of the Member States, wherein he made a presentation on the Review Conference and the Crime of Aggression.
The President noted that 26 of the 35 OAS Members are parties to the Rome Statute and encouraged the remaining nine to consider becoming parties to the Statute; he appealed to all States to ratify the amendments adopted at the Review Conference, in particular the one on the crime of aggression. Furthermore, he noted the need for States to put measures in place at the national level to enable them to investigate and prosecute the crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court.
He also referred to a seminar for CARICOM States, tentatively scheduled to take place in May 2011 in Trinidad and Tobago, which will focus on, inter alia, the amendments of the Review Conference on the crime of aggression and article 8; discussion of the Trinidad and Tobago and Belize proposal for amending the Statute; and the challenges to becoming a State Party to the Rome Statute.
For further information on the Assembly of States Parties, please e-mail to [email protected].