UN war crimes treaty is neglected
The world watched last Thursday as the United Nations was inaugurating the world’s first permanent criminal court for the prosecution of war criminals and dictators, a vision that had been nurtured by the international body for over 50 years. The event calls for consternation as much as celebration since only 66 countries ratified the treaty, down from as many as 139 that pledged to support it if it was ever given the go-ahead at the UN meeting in Rome in July 1998. Greece is one of the few EU and Balkan countries that have failed to ratify the treaty, drawing strong criticism from human rights groups and undermining its recent efforts to play a strong role in the international community as a regional force of peace, stability and justice. «I feel very sad that my country is among those who didn’t ratify the treaty,» Dr Maria Piniou-Kalli, president of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT), told Kathimerini’s English Edition yesterday. «The political dimension of this inaction is tragic. I am disappointed and I call for the urgent ratification of the treaty.» In the Balkans, Greece is in the minority group of countries who have yet to ratify the treaty, along with Albania and Turkey, as even countries who have been investigated for war crimes such as Yugoslavia and Bosnia-Herzegovina have ratified it. Turkey has not signed the treaty. According to Dr Piniou-Kalli, her center sent several letters to Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou informing him that the deadline for ratification was nearing, and urging him to take prompt action. The latest letter was sent on March 21, and the center – which cooperates closely with the ministry on human rights issues on a national and international level – has yet to receive a response. «I am sure it was not a political decision but rather a bureaucratic mishap,» she noted. «This was not the first time this has happened. We had a similar experience with the ratification of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture, and this is why we followed this one closely.» ICC by 2003 The Rome Statute will go into force on July 1, while the International Criminal Court (ICC) is expected to be established in 2003 and it will be based in The Hague. The ICC will consist of 18 international judges each elected for a nine-year term, and a team of prosecutors and investigators. But unlike other international war crimes courts established specifically for crimes committed in one country alone, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the ICC will not be part of the United Nations and will be accountable to the countries that ratify the statute. Human rights groups, while welcoming the establishment of the ICC, have been quick to point out several shortcomings that will impair its jurisdiction. New York-based Human Rights Watch notes that the court will have no jurisdiction over crimes committed on the soil of a country that has not ratified the treaty. Moreover, it will not have any authority over past crimes, as its jurisdiction begins when the ICC treaty enters into force in July. This will include any alleged war crimes that may have taken place in Palestinian-controlled territories by the Israeli army. Greece is expected to have ratified the treaty by early next year, joining a group of 30 to 40 other countries who are signatories to the treaty but have yet to ratify it. Britain must make clear it won’t accept the division of Cyprus, and the United States, which counts Turkey as «a very important ally,» should use its influence on the Turkish government to change its position, Christofias said.
