Labour Party - Speeches

PGA: Indonesia and the ICC Intervention - Jakarta

23.02.2007

Address at the Parliamentarians for Global Action meeting on Indonesia and the International Criminal Court Intervention - Jakarta, Indonesia

Mr President, Honourable Ambassadors and Participants, Fellow Colleagues and Parliamentarians:

It is a great pleasure for me to address you today as a Member of Parliament, a representative of the people. I want to thank you for the opportunity of bringing to this Assembly the voice of Parliamentarians for Global Action, a network of more than one thousand members of parliaments and congresses of 114 countries who for the past 17 years have been working around the world to promote the establishment and the effective and independent operation of the International Criminal Court.

As parliamentarians our calling is the promotion of liberty - the freedom to know one’s self, to know the times - where the threats and opportunities lie, to know our community in the spirit of 'together we serve', and to know our task. Today our prime task is to preserve and promote that spirit of liberty.

Today the spread of the right to liberty through the body of mankind is being threatened from within by the cancer of what is generally called “violence and conflict”. We need to consider, harness and hone political and popular resolve to promote the conditions that defeat this cancer.

2007 marks the 140th anniversary of the address 'On Liberty' by that supreme thinker on the subject John Stuart Mill, regarded by many as the mountain of understanding with his statement. The core value he championed in the promotion of freedom is what he called 'many sidedness' - the ability to weave many strands of society into a fabric of understanding.

Government and civil society, said Mill, is the most complicated of all subjects accessible to the human mind - that is why is it our duty to weave the many world views represented here into powerful perspective that serves as commanding catalyst for the change we seek - promotion of quality of life, at the heart of which is to drive out fear. We will not be hostage to those who will foist fear into our community.

We Parliamentarians must remain focussed on the wish of ordinary people in all our communities to live in peace. This meeting offers us the potential to strengthen our collective efforts to reach that goal of peace and security by recognition for the ICC from the world’s largest Muslim population, the third largest democracy, and the fourth largest nation state.

I believe we need to ensure that an appropriate legislative framework is created in our countries to protect the sections of the population who are most vulnerable. We have the responsibility to ensure that the most appropriate standards and principles for the Rule of Law are in force in every peaceful society, as well as in societies in transition or in conflict situations. Such standards and principles are the only appropriate tool to protect all civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights of the individual.

Colleagues, as the representatives of peoples we also have a central role to consider, discuss and eventually ratify international treaties and protocols aimed at promoting the human security. We can protect our people from atrocities by ratifying the Rome Statute of the ICC, which allows for the prevention and repression of the most serious crimes known to human-kind, namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Law-abiding nations have nothing to loose but all to gain by associating themselves with the ICC, a “Court-of-last-resort” that is a guarantee when national systems collapse or are unwilling to fight impunity. We can play an essential leadership role in the National Assembly of our countries to prepare, build consensus and pass the required legislation to attain ratification.

Parliaments need to ensure that they actively engage in effective oversight over their Executive with regards to international commitments that they make. This applies specifically to international treaties and protocols seeking to strengthen a culture of human rights and respect for the rule of law. Parliaments have to ensure that such protocols are not only signed by the Executive but that they are ratified and, where applicable, ensure that appropriate legislative machinery is put in place for them to be domesticated. Needless to say, this also applies to national human rights laws that every law-abiding nations must fully implement in good faith. By promoting effective and comprehensive legislation that implements the Rome Statute in domestic systems, Parliamentarians from all countries, whether States or non-States Parties, can contribute to the success of the Court.

PGA Members all around the world are very much engaged in the politics of international criminal justice with the aim of maximizing the impact of ICC and achieving the goals enshrined in the Rome Statute Preamble.

Through remarkable networks of information and contacts, PGA has produced tangible results in furthering the goals of providing justice for victims, breaking the cycle of impunity and contributing to lasting peace. Legislators promoted universal ratification of the ICC, exercised leadership in their countries’ foreign policy regarding the ICC, in generating information about the Court to their peers and constituencies, and in strengthening the rule of Law and the national justice system. Now that the Court is operational, the significance of Parliamentarians only continues to increase. Having appropriate domestic legislation in place will be critical for effective cooperation with the Court itself and among Member States; and in this respect, PGA legislators have a direct and essential role to perform.

PGA members also have a key role to play in promoting the “human security agenda”, which includes the respect of universally accepted human rights, as well as the formulation of legislation that may reinforce State institutions and functions, such as the independent judiciary and parliamentary oversight, both of which perform the necessary checks and balances against the Executive Power under the Rule of Law.

PGA has the mission of attaining universality of the ICC as the basic precondition for its effectiveness, even if real universality remains a long-term objective, especially because the Asia-Pacific region is still under-represented in the ICC system.

PGA remains committed to overcoming the legal and political obstacles, the misconceptions and the negative efforts that impede at least 88 States to join the ICC, and our legal team – represented here by our Director of Programmes – is ready to provide Parliamentarians with technical assistance on matters of legislation and policies in this field.

I have been a member of PGA since my first term of Parliament in 1987, where I joined with Graham Kelly, former New Zealand Ambassador to Canada and former President of PGA New Zealand, and the Hon Harry Duynhoven, former President of PGA New Zealand. Over the years I have worked closely with both PGA and my colleagues in pursuing matters of national interest in issues such as peace, democracy, justice and the rule of law. The three of us, as members of the Foreign Affairs, Trade & Defence Select Committee, were instrumental in promoting the ratification and passing of legislation by the New Zealand government recognising the International Criminal Court.

Our national group is made up of cross-party representation, and we meet on a regular basis to discuss global issues, and strategise about how to highlight these within our Parliament and nationally. We regularly place Notices of Motion on the daily Order Paper, highlighting matters of international concern; recently we have brought to the attention of the House by way of Notices of Motion the situation in Darfur, Sudan, and raised this issue also with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Disarmament. We will continue to do so until the situation is remedied. To do nothing is not an option where issues of international justice are concerned.

The support and backing of PGA New York has made our job that much easier in persuading others of the need for good governance, transparency and accountability. The recognition of the ICC by the New Zealand Government is an initiative that PGA can be pleased with and glad of, for together we serve and together we prosper.

PGA believes that in the field of International Law, the universality of the ICC is crucial and a necessary factor for the realization of Human rights security goals. Our world today is moving closer towards interdependence and integration.

In the future, the Rome Statute will become the international standard of post-conflict justice, even in cases which the ICC does not take up directly.

The Court is expected to contribute to justice, accountability, and ultimately deterrence and peace. To realize the worldwide standardization of the Rome Statute, a network of parliamentarians like PGA must come together.

Although Indonesia has not yet ratified the ICC Statute – like Japan, who is represented here today, and the Philippines whom I am happy to see here represented by our fellow colleagues PGA members – I am really enthusiastic to see that this is on a process to change. PGA hopes that, during this year, all sectors of government and society in Indonesia will speak with one voice and decide to take the final step to accede the Rome Statute. In this regard, I call upon my honorable colleagues, parliamentarians from Indonesia, to use their influence and position to accede to the Rome Statute on the ICC for the protection of humanity, for the promotion of peace and international justice in the World.

Speeches

PGA: Indonesia and the ICC Intervention - Jakarta

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