INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS

EXECUTIVE BOARD

Brussels, 17 - 19 December 1997

RESOLUTION ON THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC)

Submitted by the Human and Trade Union Rights Committee

Brussels, 15 December 1997

The ICFTU Executive Board, at its 111th meeting held in Brussels from 17 to 19 December 1997:

WELCOMING the international community’s efforts aimed at the establishment of an International Criminal Court (ICC), after over half a century of study and negotiations within the United Nations;
NOTING that crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes should fall within the jurisdiction of the ICC, the Statute of which is to be adopted by the diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries, in Rome in 1998;
ALARMED by the grave, systematic or massive character of human rights’ violations affecting civilians, human rights’ defenders, trade unionists and other workers in various regions of the world;
NOTING that such grave, massive or systematic violations fall within the ICC’s jurisdiction ;
AWARE of the necessity for the authors of such human rights’ violations to be brought to justice in order that a halt be put to impunity;
OBSERVING that trade unions around the world are therefore directly concerned by the establishment of an ICC independent of any political or partisan interests and, notably, of any pressure that may put an obstacle to cases being submitted to it;
CALLS ON ICFTU affiliates world-wide to take all necessary steps, including bringing pressure to bear on their respective govern- ments, in order to, inter alia:
  • obtain the establishment of the ICC in the shortest possible term;
  • promote the principle of automatic jurisdiction of the ICC in such as a way that submissions of cases to it be dependent neither on preliminary state consents, nor on the preliminary consent of the United Nations’ Security Council;
  • insist on the independence of the ICC Prosecutor, notably as regards the opening of investigations;
  • REQUESTS the General Secretary to take all necessary measures in order to:
  • co-ordinate the efforts of the international trade union movement in order that the above-mentioned recommen-dations be taken into account by the diplomatic Confe-rence of Plenipotentiaries and
  • initiate, with the assistance of the relevant affiliated organisations and ITS, a study of necessary measures in order to bring before justice the authors of crimes falling within the competence of the ICC and whose acts directly affect the international trade union movement.

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International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)
Boulevard Emile Jacqmain 155, B - 1210 Brussels, Belgium.

For more information please contact: ICFTU Department of Trade Union Rights
Tel. 32.2.224.02.03 Fax: 32.2.224.02.97 E-mail: turights@icftu.org