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Draft Letter to UN Missions and Foreign
Ministries
- January 2003 -
Re: FAIR Representation! on the ICC
Excellency,
We understand that the elections of judges for the International Criminal
Court will be held next week beginning on 4 February 2003 and that these
elections are subject to a minimum voting requirement of six for women and
men.
We are writing now to insist that our governments vote to ensure that
there is parity on the 18-member Court by voting in good faith and in
accordance with the Rules of Procedure for the Election of Judges. We know
that ten highly qualified women have been nominated. Some of them are
proven leaders in the field of international criminal justice and others
have a wealth of judicial and legal expertise and commitment to principles
of gender justice which should be fully reflected in the final composition
of the Court. Importantly, this field of women candidates is regionally
diverse.
While we know that States Parties must vote
for at least six women, we insist that States Parties not treat this as
the maximum number of women you must vote for but as a minimum. We insist
that States Parties vote beyond the minimum in light of the number of
highly qualified women candidates. We urge government delegates to vote
for all 10 female candidates.
You have an opportunity to make a real
difference here and continue the historic level of gender mainstreaming
begun in the Rome Statute and its supplemental texts. Now the challenge is
to put the words so far on paper into action. This is especially important
in light of the fact that there has traditionally been a drastic gender
disparity in international tribunals of the past. Currently, there is only
one woman serving as a permanent judge at the International Court of
Justice and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
Three women are serving on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
and no women are serving on the 21-member International Tribunal for the
Law of the Sea. Further, no women were nominated for the recent election
of judges to the ICJ. The ICC is
a brand new institution - the world's first permanent international
criminal tribunal - and must finally break from the discriminatory
tendencies of the past.
We and many other women's groups and members
of civil society all over the world will be watching these elections
closely and will hold our governments to account in the future if the
principle of "fair representation" enshined in the Rome Statute is not
fully honored and
adhered to in next week's elections.
Sincerely,
[your name]
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