Coalition calls for prompt Administration action on the International Criminal Court

Press: For Immediate Release April 17, 2009
Contact Diane Hodges 678-793-7060

Washington, D.C. --  More than two dozen human rights, legal and religious organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights First, the International Crisis Group and Citizens for Global Solutions, have sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, urging the Obama administration to quickly declare its support for the International Criminal Court.

The letter, which was delivered on Thursday, points out that prompt U.S. action is vital in light of the historic ICC arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir and adds that the United States is now in the odd and unsustainable position of strongly endorsing the most important action that the ICC has ever taken, while evading any commitment to support or participate in it as an institution.

“The Administration has said they will not take positions until they finish an interagency review process,” said Don Kraus, CEO of Citizens for Global Solutions.  “But in the meantime, President Al-Bashir has traveled to several countries, including one of the U.S.’s strongest Middle Eastern allies – Egypt -- without U.S. officials publicly calling on any of these countries to hand Mr. Al-Bashir over to justice.”

Kraus believes that it is critical for the Administration to take a firm stand on the indictment before African members of the ICC meet in June to discuss the warrant.

“We realize that the Administration is in a difficult position,” said Don Kraus, CEO of Citizens for Global Solutions, one of the groups which signed the letter.  “They’re still trying to fill key positions, but the future of the Court could depend on the Obama administration getting behind the indictment and doing it quickly.”

The groups are calling for active and constructive U.S. participation in the ICC Review Conference in 2010 as well as at the meetings leading up to it; extensive and thorough US cooperation with and support to the Court in its prosecutions and trials; and the reinstatement of the US signature of the Court's Rome Statute, a signature which was withdrawn by former President Bush when the treaty took effect in 2002.

These actions were endorsed by the American Bar Association in a resolution by its House of Delegates last August.  Similar actions have been recommended by a task force of the American Society of International Law.