“The bill needs broader discussion,” says Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Dev Gurung. He argues that the political committee in the cabinet is likely take up the issue for discussion considering the political nature of the bill. [break]
Minister Gurung claims that the government has felt it is necessary to discuss the bill among other political parties as well.
Human rights activists, however, allege that the government is dilly-dallying to “kill the bill”.
“The government is making excuses to abort the bill, though the past parliament had already directed for immediate ratification of the Rome Statute” says Subodh Pyakurel, president of Informal Sector Service Center (Insec), a rights group which is rallying national and international support for the ratification of the treaty in Nepal.
Pyakurel argues that ruling Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and the Nepal Army (NA) are utterly against ratification of the treaty.
“They (Maoists and the NA) fear that they will be the ones to be indicted once the Rome Statute of the ICC is ratified because the two are responsible for the over 13,000 deaths during the insurgency,” he says. “But what they failed to understand is that the ICC is not retrospective and it comes into effect only after 90 days of its ratification,” he adds.
The initiative to ratify the Rome Statute of the ICC was taken in 2006 by the government formed immediately after the success of people’s movement II. A high-level committee of secretaries formed under the coordination of the then Minister for Foreign Affairs K P Oli had recommended to the government to ratify the Statute considering possible outbreak of violence. The then House of Representatives had subsequently in July 25 passed a resolution directing the government to ratify the Statute.
William R Pace, convener of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, says the government is skeptic of ratifying the Statue due to lack of knowledge about the court’s jurisdiction.
“I sensed that many in Nepal have old-fashioned views that International laws have big powers. It’s a serious misunderstanding,” Pace, who came to Nepal in February for a week-long visit to exert pressure for ratification of the Statute, says.
Stating that the ratification of the Statue is tremendously important for the countries which are at post-conflict situations, Pace warns that failing to sign the treaty may repeat the cycle of violence. “ICC is the most democratic tool to prevent future violence. Considering Nepal’s current vulnerable situation, the government should not delay in ratifying the Statute,” he says.
During his weeklong visit, Pace and his delegation held separate meetings with Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Gurung, Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Kedar Nath Upadhyaya including civil society members to rally support for the ICC.
“But It seems the prime minister and the law minister are not willing to move forward with the issue,” he says, adding, “I think they lack the understanding over criminal justice system. There is a fear that retrospective-ism of the ICC is still true.”
The ICC, governed by the Rome Statute, is the first permanent, treaty based, international criminal court established to help end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. It tries persons accused of the most serious crimes of international concern, namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
On 17 July 1998, the international community reached an historic milestone when 120 States adopted the Rome Statute, the legal basis for establishing the permanent International Criminal Court.
The Rome Statute entered into force on 1 July 2002 after 60 countries ratified it.
Altogether 108 countries, including 14 Asian states have ratified the Statute of the ICC.
Insec President Pyakurel says the ratification of the Rome Statute is extremely important in the wake of escalating violence in the Tarai.
“Cambodia and Afghanistan ratified it to prevent post-conflict violence. Nepal government must realize the current vulnerable security situation and ratify it immediately,” says Pyakurel.
ghanashyam@myrepublica.com
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