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Home > ICC > PREPCOMS > ROME CONFERENCE > WOMEN'S CAUCUS ADVOCACY IN ICC NEGOTIATIONS |
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Acceptance of Proprio Motu
The Women's Caucus is concerned that the chairs Draft will produce a number of very key respects. We question whether this Court will be anything more than an effective tool of the Security Council.Great loss the statute requires consent of any state, but most unacceptable if the exclusion of the alternative which would empower the custodial state to agree. This reduces the jurisdiction of the Court to less than that possessed by nations; it allows perpetrators of these gross crimes to travel with impunity; and it makes the Court virtually inaccessible to any case, except those persuaded by the Security Council.
Acceptance of proprio motu is a critical advance over the earlier documents. The current Draft takes away with one hand what is given by the other. The addition of Article 18 requiring broad notice and delaying the investigation seriously curtails the powers of the Prosecutor and renders the proprio motu power practically ineffective.
Recognize the power of the Security Council is reduced over what was sought. We remain dismayed at the inclusion of Article 16, which permits the Security Council to politically manipulate any destroy the independence of the Court through renewable delay.
With respect to the issues of gender justice, a great battle was fought. The defining language on gender and forced pregnancy is a serious compromise of the Women's Caucus and other NGO positions. At the same time, we consider the codification of established crimes, principles and structures that are essential to gender justice to be significant.
The Women's Caucus and the many women and the groups in the network ,direction of energies into the process of establishing an International Criminal Court in only a strategy among many . Women's activism in different contexts and arenas continence. Women's force will remain felt to create impact and continue to bridge the said vision and reality.
July 17, 1998
Rome, Italy