MP to attend review of the ICC conference

Ross Robertson, Labour MP for Manukau East and Assistant Speaker, will attend the Justice for All (10 Year Review of the ICC) Conference in Sydney this week, in his role as President of Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA).

“The International Criminal Court (ICC), governed by the Rome Statute, is the first permanent, treaty based, international criminal court established to help end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. It is an independent international organisation, and is not part of the United Nations system. Its seat is at The Hague in the Netherlands,” said Ross Robertson.

“In 1998 the international community reached an historic milestone when 120 States adopted the Rome Statute, the legal basis for establishing the permanent International Criminal Court. The Rome Statute entered into force on 1 July 2002 after ratification by 60 countries.

“The main objective of the Justice for All Conference is the involvement of Pacific Island States that are not yet parties to the Rome Statute (e.g. Kiribati, Tonga, Tuvalu etc) following PGA’s successful work with Vanuatu which was the 120th country to ratify in 2011. It will also be an important opportunity to meet with Government and NGO officials of Indonesia and other key Asian Non States Parties,” Ross Robertson said.

Ross Robertson will chair the Asia-Pacific session of the Conference.