Mr. President,

My delegation wishes to express its extreme gratitude to you, Mr. Kirsch as Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, the Bureau members, the participating delegations and to the Italian government for hosting this conference.

At the beginning of the Conference, I talked about the importance of internal armed conflict and called for it's inclusion in this statute. While I am disappointed to see that there is an opt out for war crimes in international and internal armed conflict, my delegation notes with great pleasure that the statute preserved jurisdiction over internal armed conflict. My delegation is also happy to note the inclusion of a proprio motu prosecutor.

We have all worked tremendously hard and I believe had reached a delicate and fair balance that will give to the world community a fair and effective permanent international criminal court. Of course as has been said many times during the conference and in the Committee of the Whole that this statute will not meet with all our concerns. In the process there has been a lot of give and take and in the view of my delegation this statute is a compromise that is a great achievement that will serve generations to come. Today we send the message to the international community, that crimes against humanity, genocide, aggression and war crimes will no longer go unpunished. We tell the past victims of these crimes that we have listened to their pain and that we are giving to future generations access to justice.

I would like to state further that the success of this statute will depend on state cooperation. I urge all states that we keep this momentum and ensure that the treaty comes into force quite soon. We should let the Rights of the Child Convention serve as an example for us since it has been ratified by so many nations and came into force quite soon gfier it opened for signature. We need to tell the world community that not only have we provided a statute, but also that we have provided a court.

Thank you, Mr. President.