I send my warm greetings to all the participants in this Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The International Criminal Court has come far in a short time. At the Rome Diplomatic Conference in 1998, few could have expected that by 2006, a fully operational entity would have initiated its first trials, an Office of the Prosecutor would be prosecuting or investigating multiple situations, there would be a Security Council referral, and the Court would have issued its first warrants of arrest.