Mr. President,

My delegation first congratulates you on your election as the President of the Conference. We wish to extend our congratulations to the members of the Bureau on their election. We are confident, Mr President, that under your able guidance, the Conference will be able to achieve its important tasks. We also wish to convey our gratitude to the Government of Italy for hosting the Conference.

The draft Statute on the Establishment of the International Criminal Court has come a long way since 1994 when International Law Commission placed it before the Sixth Committee of the 49th Session of the General Assembly. Since then the original draft has expanded from its sixty to the current one hundred and sixteen Articles. By the expansion of the Articles along with the number of remaining provisions of the Draft which need to be settled here in Rome, we could only imagine the divergence of views that existed and the amount of work that has gone into the task of consolidating a text for the Convention. Much of the progress that has been made prior to this Conference is attributable to a very large extent to the willingness of member countries to work with each other and to understand the differences, not just in positions but also in our justice systems themselves. We hope that such a spirit of willingness and appreciation of differences will continue to prevail in Rome as it did in New York.

Mr President,

We believe that individuals should be made responsible for grave violations of international law. This is well established. In many circumstances reliance on national courts to enforce the responsibility is ineffective and that is very much self-evident. At present there is no permanent mechanism by which individuals can be held accountable for serious violations of international law. The use of instruments such as sanctions and embargoes has not been able to fully address gross breaches of international humanitarian law. It therefore follows that there is a strong case for the establishment of an international criminal court which could focus the rule of law on individual law breakers and by taking these people to justice, the cycle of violence could perhaps be broken.  My delegation identify with the notion, Mr President, that there is no peace  without justice.

My delegation therefore believes, Mr. President, that there must be action to bring into account all those who have committed the violations of human rights. No other institution can bring all those who have committed atrocities like a permanent institution that we are considering.

Mr. President,

I would like now to make comments on some of the provisions of the Draft Statute.

JURISDICTION OF THE COURT

Brunei Darussalam supports the inclusion of the core crimes in the jurisdiction of the Court. We would also have no problem with the inclusion of treaty crimes although this could also be dealt with later by the Court. As far as aggression is concerned, its inclusion is acceptable provided that a clear and precise definition is arrived at here in the Conference. To be effective, it is said that the Court must be impartial and independent and my delegation believes that this can be achieved by ensuring that the judges and the other office holders of the Court are fully qualified and professionals in their particular fields.

WAR CRIMES

For the definition of war crimes, we do not have any problem for the Court to have jurisdiction in non international, internal conflicts as most of the war crimes that occur today occur internally rather than internationally.

ROLE OF THE PROSECUTOR

To be effective in the dispensation of its mandate, my delegation supports the notion that the Prosecutor should be given all adequate opportunity to conduct his/her tasks without unnecessary hindrance, but under the control of the Pre-Trial Chamber. Undue delays could result in justice being denied to victims of atrocities in a particular country. As one of the trigger mechanisms, the Prosecutor, it is believed, could make the Court more effective.

ROLE OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL

Brunei Darussalam reiterates the need to ensure that the Court should be impartial and independent, free from political influence of any kind. Brunei Darussalam notes the importance of the on-going discussions on the role of the Security Council and its relations with the Court.

RELATION OF THE COURT WITH THE UN

A close relationship with the UN through the mechanism of an agreement between the Court and the UN could be supported by my delegation. COMPLEMENTARITY

Brunei Darussalam is of the view that there is a need to balance the objective of the establishment of the Court and the interest of the State. It is of course realized that throughout the Draft text, there are provisions of internal checks and balances of the Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction. It has been said that complementarity is the heart of the jurisdictional relationship between the national justice system and the ICC. To be widely acceptable, the ICC should therefore supplement and not supplant national jurisdiction. It therefore follows that it is the primary duty of States to investigate and prosecute those suspected or accused of committing the crimes which fall within the Court's jurisdiction. The Court should not therefore act when States are able and willing to task those responsible for the atrocities committed. This must be clearly stated.

Mr. President,

The basic premise of the Draft is the acceptance of the Statute and acceptance of the jurisdiction. These are two separate things. Acceptance of the Statute carries with it the obligations to cooperate with Court. It does not even involve the obligation to hand over the suspect or accused over to the Court unless the State has accepted the jurisdiction in respect of that particular crime. Therefore a State which has not accepted the Court's jurisdiction, can choose to try the accused itself, or transfer the accused to another State pursuant to an extradition request. My delegation fully understands that for the International Criminal Court to be effective, States Parties should fully cooperate and to do so promptly and without undue delay. To be effective, it must however be realized that both the Court and State Parties must work closely together and to build on the strength of the system of cooperation. Problems encountered by the existing ad-hoc tribunals must be fully understood and lessons must be learned from them. My delegation also feels that with reference to certain provisions relating to evidence and procedure, these would be more properly set out separately. Mr. President,

In conclusion, my delegation wish to put on record our assurances that we will do our utmost to extend our cooperation to enable us all to come up with an acceptable Statute of the ICC. We join the other delegations who have spoken before us in reiterating that the cycle of violence would only continue as long as the people and specifically the victims of the atrocities feet that justice has not been served and thus offers only the possibility of renew violence by way of recourse.

Thank you.