As everyone is quite aware each day has
many celebrations attached to them. One such day is 17 July. This day
is International Justice day which takes special note of the Rome
Statute and International Crimminal Court.
Mr.
Donald Deya, CEO of the Pan
African Lawyers Union (PALU)
and Chair of the International
Coalition for the ResponsibilitytoProtect,
acknowledged how much we have done and how much we still have to do.
“As we mark the 20th anniversary of the Rome Statute, the
international community is provided with a timely opportunity to
reflect on how far we have come, but also how far we still must go to
end impunity and better protect populations from atrocity crimes,
particularly in ensuring the transition from commitments to action.
Experience has shown that seeking justice for victims is not easy,
but it is vital to the prevention of their recurrence. With this in
mind, we all must take advantage of this historic opportunity to
reaffirm our commitment towards international justice by working
together to strengthen national, regional, and international atrocity
prevention tools to reinforce accountability for perpetrators and
uphold our obligations under the Responsibility to Protect.”
For
those in Canada, we have a very strong history in international
politics yet very few of us know how much we have done. Philippe
Kirsch was born in Belgium then came to Canada in 1961. In
1998 as a Canadian diplomat, he began the five year work to lead the
world into the creation of international crimminal court. There was
very little support for such a court at that time yet he pushed
through.
Starting in 1996, Canada had seen a deep need for such a court due to
Louise
Arbour's work as the United Nations' chief prosecutor of
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and for
Rwanda. As she fought to have war crimminal prosecuted she made it
very clear that a permanent court was needed. This work made Canada
stand up and push for such a court.
From those two efforts came the International
Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. In 2001 Canada
lead an independent group that produced the ideology known as the
Responsibility
to Protect.
Each of these efforts did not have major news coverage. Also each of
these efforts shows how much work we have to do inside our own
border. What these efforts do indicate are a true example of what
defines Canada, peace is very difficult yet it is worth the efforts
to accomplish, even when the world is against you.
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