On behalf of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), I should like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to say a few words at the start of the Diplomatic Conference on the establishment of an international criminal court.

The ICRC's foremost concern is to see a reduction in the number and in the suffering of conflict victims. This can only be achieved by taking action simultaneously on several fronts.

As you are aware, the ICRC is intensely involved in conducting relief and protection operations in the very midst of armed conflicts. But it also has a mandate conferred on it by the States party to the 1949 Geneva Conventions (which now number 188) to work for the faithful application of international humanitarian law by all those who have a duty to apply it. The ICRC attaches the utmost importance to this task. While implementation of the law requires preventive action, education and training, measures of repression are needed as well. A law that is not backed up by sanctions rapidly loses its credibility. The ICRC, therefore, cannot but support moves to set up effective mechanisms of repression, with which it could cooperate. In this regard, it welcomes the statement made by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on the international criminal court.

Such a court has become indispensable today. It is certainly the case that States must continue to bear primary responsibility for instituting legal proceedings; this obligation is stipulated in the Geneva Conventions and still applies. It goes without saying that greater efforts must also be made to encourage States to meet their existing obligations and bring suspected war criminals before their own courts. It is to this end that the ICRC provides States with technical assistance, through its Advisory Service, to promote the adoption of the legislative measures necessary to repress war crimes.

It must nonetheless be acknowledged that the present system has its shortcomings, which is why it is essential to set up an international criminal court so as to make certain that suspected war criminals are prosecuted in cases where they are not brought to justice before national courts. Impunity can no longer be tolerated.

Given the complementary roles of the international criminal court and national courts, we feel it is particularly important that the international community endow the future court with the full powers it needs to discharge its heavy responsibilities. In this connection, the ICRC would like to stress the need to ensure that no backward step is taken in relation to existing international humanitarian law, the product of long and arduous negotiations whose results have never been called into question.

Allow me to make three basic points.

First of all, the international criminal court must have jurisdiction over crimes committed in all types of armed conflict, whether international or otherwise; this is all the more important in view of the fact that most of today's conflicts are internal ones. In particular, the war crimes listed in the court's statute must include the most serious violations of Protocols I and II additional to the Geneva Conventions. These treaties have so far been ratified by 150 and 142 States respectively, and in any event most of their provisions are of a customary nature.

Secondly, the international criminal court should have inherent or automatic competence to try crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. If it is to serve as an effective complement to national courts, the court should be competent to try such cases when a State is party to the treaty. Already, by virtue of the principle of universal jurisdiction. every State has the right, and in many instances the duty, to prosecute suspected war criminals or to extradite them, and does not have to obtain the consent of other States to do so. To require the additional consent of States before a particular case can be submitted to the court would clearly be a retrograde step in relation to existing law. It is difficult to accept that war criminals could enjoy legal protection from prosecution.

Thirdly, the prosecutor must also be empowered to conduct investigations and institute proceedings on his or her own initiative, although in such an event the principle of complementarity must, of course, be respected.

I should like to reiterate the ICRC's firm support for the process under way and to express our resolve to make a constructive contribution to this conference. The establishment of an international criminal court is an historic event, one that has raised great hopes of securing more effective protection for war victims. It will not only make it possible to bring to justice individuals suspected of having committed serious violations of the law, but will also send a clear message to the perpetrators of such violations: impunity, 1 repeat, must come to an end. Moreover, the existence of such a court may help promote national reconciliation in countries beset by violence and could also have a significant deterrent effect. So much is at stake here.

I therefore call on all participants to ensure that the outcome of this conference will meet the world's expectations. The ICRC fervently hopes that the discussions will reflect the international community's firm resolve to breathe new life into humanitarian values that are universally recognized but are still, as the twentieth century draws to a close, all too often flouted.