Amnesty International has been working for several years to set up an International Criminal Court. The organization is convinced that the vicious circle of impunity can only be broken if a fair and effective system of international justice is organized.
Impunity allows the transformation of occasional human rights abuses into systematic practices.
Thus, our movement published numerous documents to shed light on the importance of setting up and International Criminal Court and propose substantive improvements to the draft statute, in order to make sure that the tribunal is fair and effective. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers have sent appeals relentlessly for years to the governments of all countries and to their reperesentatives at the United Nations to ask that this body was established. Amnesty International delegations have lobbyied at all session of the Ad Hoc Committee and of the Preparatory Committee together with other NGOs raising awareness with the public at large. The efforts of Amnesty International and of the Coalition for the Establishment of an International Criminal Court have resulted in a popular mobilization of public opinion all over the world. Amnesty International will continue to work throughout the diplomatic conference in Rome and will make an extaordinary effort in order to make sure that an ICC be finally established after 50 years of declarations of principles.