B4-0975, 0982, 0994, 1008, 1021, 1037 and 1042/95

Resolution the need to establish a permanent international court to try and punish war crimes and crimes against humanity and the operation of the ad hoc courts on the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda

The European Parliament,

A. having regard to the increasing number of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in many countries and which go unpunished, and drawing attention to the annual report of Amnesty International for 1994, published on 5 July 1995, according to which state officials were responsible for extrajudicial executions in 54 states, that in 34 states prisoners died as a result of torture by state officials and that rape is increasingly used as a means of warfare,

B. having regard to the growing public awareness of the need for the perpetrators of these crimes to be brought to justice,

C. having regard to the vital need to lay the foundations for a rigorously objective and impartial international legal body to try war crimes and crimes against humanity wherever they are committed,

D. stressing the importance of establishing a permanent international criminal court, as recognized by the UN General Assembly at its 49th session,

E. whereas the UN General Assembly, at its 49th session, instructed an ad hoc committee to present it with a final draft statute,

F. emphasizing the significant progress in this direction represented by the setting up of international ad hoc courts to sentence those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, even though major problems still remain with regard to the regular financing of these bodies and implementation procedures under the internal law of many countries,

G. whereas funding for the ad hoc tribunals is due to end on 14 July 1995;

H. shocked that, a year after the end of the genocide of Tutsis and the mass murder of moderate Hutus in Rwanda, nobody has yet been tried or even charged for their part in these appalling crimes in Rwanda,

I. appalled that, according to the report published by Medécins Sans Frontières on 5 July 1995, 50 000 Hutus believed to be involved in these crimes are imprisoned in Rwanda, that at Gitarama a prison built to hold 400 contains 7000 prisoners, that the mortality rate there has already reached one in eight and that many prisoners develop gangrene in their feet from having to stand in pools of sewage for days on end,

J. having regard to its resolution of 12 March 1993 on human rights in the world and Community human rights policy for the years 1991/92 ((OJ C 115, 26.4.1993, p. 214.)), which calls on the international community to combat the impunity enjoyed by criminals showing no regard for human dignity, and its resolution of 21 April 1994 on the creation of an international criminal tribunal ((OJ C 128, 9.5.1994, p. 343.)),

The European Parliament,

1. Considers it necessary to establish a permanent international criminal court and stresses the particular importance of recognizing and implementing the basic principles of a system of international justice, which would be a particularly significant way of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations;

2. Calls on the UN General Assembly at its 50th session to adopt the final draft statute for an international criminal court drawn up by an ad hoc committee;

3. Particularly welcomes the fact that the draft statute makes no provision for the death penalty and urges that the final statute also exclude any such provision;

4. Calls on the Council, Commission and the Member States to take all the necessary steps to ensure that the UN General Assembly rapidly approves the inclusion of funding for the ad hoc tribunals in the general budget of the United Nations;

5. Calls on those Member States that have not already done so to incorporate into their national law the legal rules relating to the work of the ad hoc tribunals;

6. Commends the Commission for having contributed to the financing of certain aspects of the work of the ad hoc tribunals and calls upon it to do likewise in the case of the permanent international criminal court as soon as it has been instituted;

7. Insists that, as a matter of extreme urgency, the EU and its Member States, working if possible with the OAU, should provide the Government of Rwanda with the means to hold those suspected of playing a part in the genocide of Tutsis and mass murder of moderate Hutus, in conditions which do not threaten their lives or health;

8. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the President of the Ad Hoc Committee of the UN, the Presidents of the Ad Hoc Tribunals on the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the Secretary- General of the United Nations, the Secretary-General of the OAU and the Government of Rwanda.