Gift seeks local laws to support ICC

Foreign Affairs Minister Knowlson Gift offered support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) while addressing the United Nations Security Cou-ncil on Wednesday. He was joined by several other Ministers worldwide as they voiced support for the ICC in the wake of a move by the United States to cut aid to the ICC’s member-states. Former President of TT, ANR Robinson, was one of the early and strong advocates of  ICC. Gift, in his address, called for the strengthening of national laws to enable states to try ICC defined crimes, saying, the ICC can make a significant contribution to international peace and security by requiring that justice be administered at the national level. He said that the ICC operates on the fundamental principle of complementarily: the ob-ligation of the state to prosecute remains, and it is only where national authorities are unwilling or unable to prosecute that the court may step in.

The ICC embodies an important principle first established by the Nurem-berg Tribunal and further recognised by the Security Council through its inclusion in the statutes of the ICTY and the ICTR: no one is above the law, and no one will escape punishment for such horrendous crimes. While noting the success of those tribunals, Gift said that  the international community now has a permanent court to bring to justice the persons responsible for precisely the type of crimes for which those ad hoc tribunals were created. He said that in post-conflict situations, the capacity of national authorities to prosecute such crimes must be strengthened through appropriate forms of international assistance. “On the other hand,” he observed, “the ICC can make a significant contribution to international peace and security by requiring that justice be administered at the national level.”