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"The U.S. can't cave in to narrow-minded isolationists back home. We're trying to design a real instrument of global justice. The administration should not capitulate to people who think in terms of the nineteenth century, rather than the twenty-first."
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Richard Dicker Human Rights Watch |
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"The U.S. can't cave in to narrow-minded isolationists back home," said Richard Dicker, who leads the ICC campaign for Human Rights Watch. "We're trying to design a real instrument of global justice. The administration should not capitulate to people who think in terms of the nineteenth century, rather than the twenty-first."
At a small briefing today in Rome, a spokesman for Sen. Jesse Helms described the court as "a bad idea whose time has not yet come," and said the court had to be structured so that no American citizen would ever have to come before it.
"A court that Helms could support would allow Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein to escape justice," said Dicker. Dicker added the U.S. delegation has taken positions much like those that Helms's spokesman seemed to be describing, a 100 percent guarantee against prosecutions of American citizens. The U.S. still supports a veto for permanent members of the United Nations Security Council over the ICC docket, and wants to shackle the prosecutor to prevent her from undertaking investigations on her own initiative.
After three weeks of a five-week diplomatic conference, the U.S. delegation has still not announced its position on the most important issue facing delegates from more than 155 countries in Rome: the issue of "state consent," or whether a head of state accused of serious crimes could block an ICC prosecution. The proposed ICC would investigate and prosecute future acts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
"The U.S. delegation is playing not hardball, but stonewall," said Dicker. "Many significant players here in Rome -- France, Japan, Mexico -- have announced changes in their position. The U.S. hasn't even announced what its position is."
For further information, please contact:
In Rome, Richard Dicker: (39) 335-345-629
In New York, Ken Roth: (1) 212-216-1244
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