*This position paper was submitted by the Delegate of Pakistan at the 2013 BMUN Security Council in Bangalore, INDIA
Name of Delegate : Chanakya Varma Name of School : National Public School, Indiranagar Name of Delegation : The Islamic Republic of Pakistan Name of Committee : The United Nations Security Council
Agenda : Topic Area 2 : Reconsidering the Mandate of the International Criminal Court under the Rome Statute
بسم ال الرحمن الرحيم bismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, The Islamic Republic of Pakistan believes that the although the notion of a unified supreme judicial body was a noble one, the practicality of the International Criminal Court has been below par, on many occasion. A decade past its inception, Pakistan feels that the vagueness of the ICC and the Statute, with their seeming arbitrary reactions to each case has undermined its efficiency. Then there are more fundamental questions. The aim of the court is to prosecute and hopefully deter egregious human-rights abuses. But the crime of aggression calls into question a state's motives for using force, rather than aiming to uphold rules about how force is applied. Trying to identify aggressors could hopelessly politicize the court and undermine its credibility. [1] To substantiate, the case of Omar al-Bashir can an example of the ICC being used for politicization. The UN Security Council voting to subject al-Bashir to ICC jurisdiction, when the majority of the permanent members of the Council have themselves stayed out of the ICC, simply points to how the ICC is merely another weapon by which the international leaders can be strategically brought down. This declaration of a defiant Sudanese President as an international criminal has obstructed a peaceful resolution and prolonged the suffering in Darfur. Several countries, like Spain and South Africa, had earlier chosen peace and reconciliation after their national traumas during the Franco dictatorship and apartheid respectively, over the likely upheaval of bringing their earlier leaders, who still had substantial following, to trial and punishment. The principal objections of Pakistan to the Rome Statute are that it : 1. Made the ICC subordinate to the UN Security Council, and thus in effect to its permanent members, and their political interference, by providing it the power to refer cases to the ICC and the power to block ICC proceedings. 2. Provided the extraordinary power to the UN Security Council to bind non-States Parties to the ICC ; this violates a fundamental principle of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties that no state can be forced to accede to a treaty or be bound by the provisions of a treaty it has not accepted.
___________________________
[1] http://www.economist.com/node/16219717
*This position paper was submitted by the Delegate of Pakistan at the 2013 BMUN Security Council in Bangalore, INDIA
3. Blurred the legal distinction between normative customary law and treaty obligations, particularly in respect of the definitions of crimes against humanity and their applicability to internal conflicts, placing countries in a position of being forced to acquiesce through the Rome Statutes to provisions of international treaties they have not yet accepted 4. Permitted no reservations or opt-out provisions to enable countries to safeguard their interests if placed in the above situation Such concerns regarding possible misuse and abuse were not confined to Pakistan, and were shared by most countries whose armed forces found themselves involved in situations of armed conflict, internal or external. Broadly speaking, Pakistan still believes that the Court struggles to establish its relevance for victims, affected communities and the public in situation countries. The ICC also needs to begin elaborating its vision for what it intends to accomplish in any given country, what legacy it will leave, how it will assure that legacy and what resources it will need to do so. As a solution, Pakistan would like to enlist few of the many amendments and suggestions it holds for the ICC, being: • Increased awareness among ICC States Parties of the need to strengthen field presence • Strengthened strategic planning on the ICC’s presence in situation countries • Enhanced awareness of the ICC in situation countries • Preventing the UNSC from enforcing cases on to the ICC, unless a majority is present in the General Assembly Pakistan hopes to see strong and practical solutions brought out in committee, and looks forward to proposing many of its own that have not been explicitly detailed in this position paper due to restrictions on its length. It believes a viable and independent future of the ICC is of utmost importance in today’s world, and resolves to take all the necessary steps to play an active part in ensuring the aforementioned.
Insha'Alla, peace will reign this world again.