PRESS RELEASE: International Criminal Court Prosecutor Reports to Security Council on Darfur

June 14, 2006 -

Citizens for Global Solutions welcomes today’s report to the United Nations Security Council on the investigation of atrocities committed in Darfur. The report was presented by the International Criminal Court’s Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

Citizens for Global Solutions urge states and international organizations to comply with his request for full cooperation with the investigation and protection of victims and witnesses.

“This report demonstrates significant progress that the Office of the Prosecutor has made,” said Golzar Kheiltash, Legal Analyst, International Law & Justice Program at Citizens for Global Solutions. “It has been painstakingly gathering information and building cases that comply with strict evidentiary standards against those individuals most responsible for the atrocities in Darfur. It should be welcomed by the Security Council and backed up with substantive support from the Council and its member states, including the United States.

“In particular, the report demonstrates the soundness of the U.S. decision to abstain on Resolution 1593, which referred the Darfur situation to the ICC. Prosecutor Ocampo’s report proves that the opposition of an increasingly small number of American policymakers to the ICC is based in ideology, not fact. Last year President Bush called the crimes committed in Darfur genocide. It is now time for his administration to step up to the plate and fully assist the ICC with its investigation in Sudan. One way it could have provided added muscle to today’s Security Council briefing was having U.S. Ambassador John Bolton present, rather than his deputy.”

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For information on effective messaging on the ICC to U.S. audiences, download the ICC Communications Guide and ICC Multimedia Resource Center at www.usaforicc.org.

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Notes to Editors: Citizens for Global Solutions is a non-partisan membership organization that envisions a future in which nations work together to abolish war, protect our rights and freedoms, and solve the problems facing humanity that no one nation can solve alone.