The role of Parliaments in the establishment and functioning of

mechanisms to provide for the judgement and sentencing of

war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and terrorism,

with a view to avoiding impunity

                                   

Radu PODGOREAN

Member of the Chamber of Deputies

Inter-Parliamentary Group of ROMANIA

 

 

 

 

Mr. President, 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

I am most honored for having the opportunity to take the floor. This is my first participation in an IPU session and I would like, at the outset, to express my appreciation for the quality of our debates so far.

 

Let me begin by informing you that Romania is party to all the 12 international instruments relating to terrorism. In 2004, our Parliament ratified the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, and the Protocol amending the European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism.  

 

More than 20 agreements with several countries are under negotiation, addressing various aspects of the fight against terrorism and organized crime. In terms of legislative action, it is worth mentioning that we have adopted last year the Law for the prevention of and fight against terrorism, which unifies and completes the already existing national legislation in this area.

 

Global terrorism requires a continuous review and reinforcement of the relevant UN mechanisms. Romania, currently a member of the Security Council, has an important contribution to fostering the Council’s terrorism-related initiatives.

 

Dear colleagues,

 

The Romanian Group proposed some amendments to the draft resolution and, with your permission, I will focus on them very briefly.

 

We consider that operative paragraph 8 requires further consideration, since its wording may be construed as extending to a category of agreements that, in our view, are not contrary to the provisions of the Rome Statute, namely to its Article 98. In this respect, I would like to stress that Romania aligned itself to the EU Common Position no. 444/2003 regarding the principles guiding the Arrangements between a State party to the Rome Statute on the conditions to surrender to the Court.

 

We also believe that our final document should integrate a gender perspective. To this end, we need to highlight the historic development achieved under international law with the inclusion of gender crimes in the definitional sections of the Rome Statute. This is a major step forward, paving the way for effectively addressing the crimes directed at or disproportionately affecting women.

 

From another perspective, when examining the role of Parliaments in relation to the ICC, we proposed to underscore the parliamentary support for a wider dissemination of the values, principles and provisions of the Rome Statute and related instruments, and for the understanding of the functioning of the Court.

 

As a final remark, we fully share the view that an ever greater participation by countries in the Rome Statute is key when addressing war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and terrorism, and would have a significant contribution to the promotion of justice and human rights throughout the world.

 

Thank you.