wfn.org | WCC NEWS: IInternational Criminal Court: US asked to ratify it

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World Council of Churches - News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 21/02/2005

WCC CENTRAL COMMITTEE ASKS THE US AND OTHER REFRACTORY GOVERNMENTS TO
RATIFY INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT STATUTE

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The World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee asked "all governments which have not yet ratified the Rome Statute for the International
Criminal Court, and especially the United States, to ratify it promptly
without reservations".

The call to the unwilling governments is part of a substantial statement
on the International Criminal Court (ICC) approved one day before the end
of the 15-22 February meeting of the WCC governing body in Geneva. The
document affirms the ICC, which entered into force in 2002, as "one of the
most important steps forward in International Law in the last decades".

But it labels the attitude of the US Government, which "after having
signed the Rome Statute, has declared its intention not to ratify it and
is actively seeking bilateral agreements in order to exempt US nationals
from prosecution by the ICC," as "an inexcusable attempt to gain impunity
from the crimes defined in the Statute".

Already in 1998, the WCC assembly in Harare (Zimbabwe) welcomed the ICC.
The statement recognizes, however, that the Court will certainly "not be
able to prevent all future human rights violations", but will provide "a
forum to prosecute the most heinous international crimes when national
systems are unable or unwilling to do so". It will also offer "redress to
victims where national courts are not in a position to deliver justice". 
According to the WCC central committee, the ICC will also "strengthen the
possibility for peace and end the cycle of violence by offering justice as
an alternative to revenge". And finally, it will "contribute to the
process of reconciliation by replacing the stigma of collective guilt with
the catharsis of individual accountability".

The committee's statement therefore calls upon the Council's churches to
"urge for the universal ratification of the Rome Statute of the ICC,
particularly in those countries which have yet to ratify [it]". It also
asks governments which have already ratified the statute "to adapt their
national legislation to implement the ICC and effectively support any
process under the ICC jurisdiction".

Among other commendable features of the ICC, the document highlights the
"importance of the victims' participation as laid down in the procedures"
as well as the "unprecedented acknowledgement" of "women's human rights
and gender-specific rights abuses as crimes against humanity and war
crimes".

This "victim-centred approach" is characteristic of the "paradigm of
restorative justice", already present at the community and national
levels, which the ICC now brings "to the international level in a new
way".

The full text of the WCC central committee statement is available at:
www.oikoumene.org > Central Committee

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Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in
more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly,
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.