UN General Assembly
2012

The creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) demonstrates that we are on a historic journey of building international institutions that has not yet been completed. The ICC is but a further step in the direction of the complete elimination of dictatorship. However, the Court tackles crimes only after their commission; what we require are mechanisms to prevent dictatorship from taking root in the first place. Contemporary dictatorships are based on the use of excessive force and give themselves false legality through the holding of fraudulent elections. They use the appearance of democracy to undermine democracy itself. Those kinds of elections took place in Tunisia in 1999, 2004 and 2009. Our deposed dictator was prepared to remain in power forever. He intended, for the 2014 elections, to rewrite the Constitution so he could run for a third term. Each time he re-imposed the status quo because he knew that no internal domestic or international mechanisms existed that could rein in his political activities. During that entire period, the Tunisian democratic opposition could not but note the paralysis of domestic