ICC Prosecutor concludes productive participation at 56th session of the Munich Security Conference: “proliferation of conflicts and the toll they exact in human suffering reinforce the need to advance justice and accountability for atrocity crimes”
From 14 to 16 February, the Prosecutor of International Criminal Court ("ICC" or the "Court"), Mrs Fatou Bensouda, and her delegation attended the 56th session of the Munich Security Conference ("MSC"). This year's edition of the MSC, in the tradition of past years, once again served as an effective and helpful platform for the Prosecutor and her team to stress the importance of accountability for atrocity crimes in the high-level security discussions, and to advance the mandate of the Office through bilateral meetings held in the margins of the Conference. "It is my firm belief that blind justice for the world's gravest crimes is an indispensable requirement for achieving a more secure and stable rules-based global order. Indeed, for a more just world in accordance with the goals and values of the Rome Statute", stated Prosecutor Bensouda.
In the margin of the Conference, the Prosecutor held productive meetings with, among others, H.E. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary General of the League of Arab States; H.E. Giorgi Gakharia, Prime Minister of Georgia; H.E. Mohammad Shtayyeh, Prime Minister of Palestine; H.E. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey; H.E. Vadym Prystaiko, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine; H.E. Katrin Eggenberger, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Principality of Liechtenstein; H.E. Antje Leendertse, State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office of the Republic of Germany; civil society representatives, including Human Rights Watch, the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (Ethiopia), and the Institute for Security Studies (South Africa).
At the MSC, Prosecutor Bensouda delivered a keynote for the event "No Peace without Feminism. Why every State needs Feminist Foreign Policy", organized by Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy (CFFP), the German Federal Foreign Ministry, Open Society Foundations et al. In her remarks, the Prosecutor highlighted the importance of women empowerment and inclusion in decision making and conflict prevention, adding that "responsible policy must stand by the institutions and mechanisms that advance a rules-based international system and aim to deter war making and atrocities." "From the devastation and ashes of the Second World War, we vouched that 'Never Again' should not ring hollow, and that power must no longer be a shield and a ticket to impunity", she emphasized in her call for support for the ICC and its crucial mandate.
The proliferation of conflict around the world and the toll they exact in human suffering only reinforce the need to advance justice and accountability for atrocity crimes as essential components of security.
The Prosecutor and her Office are grateful to the Munich Security Conference for its continued support.
The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC conducts independent and impartial preliminary examinations, investigations and prosecutions of the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. Since 2003, the Office has been conducting investigations in multiple situations within the ICC's jurisdiction, namely in Uganda; the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Darfur, Sudan; the Central African Republic (two distinct situations); Kenya; Libya; Côte d'Ivoire; Mali; Georgia; Burundi; and in the People's Republic of Bangladesh/ Republic of the Union of Myanmar. The Office is also currently conducting preliminary examinations relating to the situations in Colombia; Guinea; Iraq/UK; the Philippines; Nigeria; Ukraine; and Venezuela while the situations in Afghanistan and Palestine are pending judicial rulings.
For further details on "preliminary examinations" and "situations and cases" before the Court, click here, and here.
Contact: [email protected]