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Letter
to UN Security Council Member States
Regarding U.S. Efforts to Exempt Peacekeepers
from International Criminal Court
9 May 2002
Ambassador Kishore Mahubani
Permanent Mission
of the Republic of Singapore
to the United Nations
President of the Security Council
231 East 51st Street
New York, NY 10022
Re: Renewal of UN Peacekeeping in East Timor
Dear Ambassador Mahubani,
We are writing to urge that your government, as
a member and current president of the UN Security Council, resist any
efforts to provide exemptions for future UN Peacekeepers from the
jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
As you know, the Rome Statute of the ICC
provides jurisdiction over some of the most serious crimes of concern
to the international community. These crimes are so serious that the
drafters of the Rome Statute consciously provided in Article 27 that
no immunities, even Head of State or official acts, would stand up
against the Court's jurisdiction. This basic and important principle
should then not be corrupted in practice with respect to UN
peacekeepers. To do so would seriously undermine the legitimacy and
credibility of the future Court not to mention its effectiveness if it
is not able to investigate egregious crimes that would otherwise be
within its jurisdiction.
We appreciate the delicate and pressured
situation in which UN peacekeepers are often deployed. However, there
is no reason to corrupt the basic principle of independence and
impartiality of the judiciary as enshrined in numerous human rights
instruments and which is considered a cornerstone of democratic
systems to satisfy the political bent of one country. This is even
more critical when accountability for the types of crimes set out in
the Rome Statute is at stake.
We thank you for your attention to this and
expect that the issue will be dealt with fairly and satisfactorily.
Sincerely,
Pam Spees
Program Director
cc: DR. HAN SEUNG-SOO, President,
General Assembly;
H.E. Kofi Annan,
Secretary-General of the United Nations;
Mary Robinson, UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights;
Angela King, Assistant
Secretary-General
Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director,
UNIFEM
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