Suriname becomes 107th country to join International Criminal Court
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| Published on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 |
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NEW YORK, USA: Two days before the historic tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Suriname has acceded to the Statute and become the 107th country to join the Court.
Other Caribbean members of the ICC include Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Guyana, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago.
“Caribbean states played a pioneering role in the establishment of the Court. Suriname’s accession today is encouraging: it further consolidates the region’s commitment to fighting impunity for the most heinous crimes,” said Anton de Kom University Professor of Public International Law Eric Rudge who, along with his students, has long been advocating for Suriname to join the ICC.
Suriname joined the Court after its parliament unanimously passed on 8 July 2008 the ICC Bill of Accession, which was submitted by President Ronald Veneetian a few days earlier. This momentum was the direct result of sustained pressure by various actors including members of civil society, academics, parliamentarians and regional organizations such as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organization of American States (OAS).
Just over one month ago at a seminar organized by CICC Steering Committee Member, Parliamentarians for Global Action, OAS Assistant Secretary General Albert R. Ramdin described the ICC as “a milestone in efforts to combat impunity,” and urged all Caribbean countries to join the Court.
“We welcome Suriname’s accession. It is the 24th OAS member state to join the ICC and we hope that this will continue to tilt the regional balance in support of the Court. We now urge the five remaining CARICOM member states that have yet to join the Court -- Bahamas, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica and St. Lucia -- to do so immediately”, said Francesca Varda, Regional Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC). The Coalition is a global network of more than 2,500 non-governmental organizations advocating for a fair, effective and independent International Criminal Court.
The CICC called on Suriname to proceed with the ratification of the Agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of the ICC as well as implement the Rome Statute into domestic law.
And in honour of the tenth anniversary of the Rome Statute, the Coalition also called on Cameroon, the Czech Republic, Indonesia, Moldova, and Ukraine to ratify in 2008 and for another ten states to do so by 2010. | | | | Reads : 162 |
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