Concern Expressed over Withdrawal Announcements by South Africa, Burundi, Gambia
With crimes against humanity multiplying around the world, States must push forward toward — and not back away from — universal support for the International Criminal Court, the General Assembly heard today, as it considered the latest annual report of the Hague-based judicial body.
Assembly President Peter Thomson (Fiji) recalled that 18 years had elapsed since the world came together in Rome to establish the International Criminal Court. Nevertheless, daily atrocities committed against innocent civilians continued to shock the international conscience. Encouraging States to promote the universality of the Rome Statute — the treaty that had established the Court and whose States Parties had accepted its jurisdiction — he warned that Member States should strengthen, not diminish, their resolve to end impunity.
Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi, President of the International Criminal Court, echoed that sentiment, stressing, “The assistance and cooperation of States remains crucial for the Court’s ability to conduct its mandate.” Over the last two decades, she said, the body had given a voice to victims and made strides in addressing crimes such as the use of child soldiers, sexual violence in conflict attacks on civilians and the destruction of cultural property, while its Trust Fund for Victims had assisted more than 300,000 victims with physical and psychological rehabilitation and material support.
Presenting the Court’s latest annual report, she said the past year had seen three judgments, two trials held in their entirety, two ongoing trials and another set to begin soon. Following convictions, reparations proceedings were underway in four cases. Among other key developments, the Court had sentenced former Congolese politician Jean-Pierre Bemba to concurrent terms of 18 years in prison for rape and 16 years for murder carried out in the Central African Republic.
In its first conviction relating to the protection of cultural property, she said, the Court had sentenced Ahmad Al Mahdi — a former prominent figure of an Al-Qaida splinter group — to nine years in prison for destroying 10 buildings of a religious and historical character in Timbuktu, Mali. It had also begun a trial against Côte d’Ivoire’s former President, Laurent Gbagbo, and another Ivoirian politician, who stood accused of murder, rape, persecution and other inhumane acts allegedly committed during the country’s 2010‑2011 post-election violence.
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