* Excerpts from an Op-ED published in the Jamaica Gleaner on 11 April 2010 at http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100411/focus/focus5.html

“An interesting aspect of the history of the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is that, although the idea of an international criminal court was raised from as far back as the period after World War I, the modern genesis of the topic was a proposal made in 1989 by Trinidad and Tobago at the General Assembly of the United Nations. [...] When the item was introduced in 1989 by Trinidad and Tobago the reception in the Sixth Committee and the General Assembly was lukewarm. But when the Yugoslavia conflict broke out in 1991 the Europeans came aboard and pressed for the establishment of an international criminal court.

[...] The ICC Statute, adopted in 1998, has now been ratified by 110 States. Within the Caribbean the Statute has been ratified by Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname. In 1998 I signed the Final Act on behalf of Jamaica and in 2000 Jamaica signed the Statute, but has not yet ratified it. Nor has Bahamas, Grenada, St. Lucia.

I suggest three reasons for Caribbean States to ratify the Statute of the ICC.

First, the main purpose of the Court is to ensure that serious breaches of international criminal law and international humanitarian law do not go unpunished. We in the Caribbean have a history that has made us all to familiar with impunity in respect of atrocities that today would readily qualify as crimes against humanity. The inhuman and degrading practice of slavery carried out in the West Indies for over two centuries should prompt all Caribbean countries to support an institution whose primary function is to put an end to impunity for serious crimes.

Second, a cornerstone of the Court’s Statute is international human rights, including the protection of the rights of the accused. Caribbean countries have always been at the forefront in the struggle for human rights and have a strong history of valuing human rights. We are not new to the business of defending human rights. Jamaica was among the first set of countries, if not the first, to enact legislation imposing trade sanctions against apartheid South Africa. [...] The Caribbean Westminster Model Constitutions provide for the protection of fundamental human rights, including the rights of the accused. Generally, the Caribbean can take pride in the system of parliamentary democracy that it has followed over the last five decades. Moreover, Caribbean countries, which have fought for their independence, and therefore, value their sovereignty, need have no fear of the I.C.C.

The greatest contribution that the ICC has made to the international community is the principle of complementarity entrenched in its Statute. The Court will only exercise jurisdiction where a national state is unwilling or unable to do so. Therefore, we can continue to deal with serious crimes within our own countries. But joining the ICC will allow us to be more engaged in the international legal and diplomatic community, working together to prosecute the most serious crimes in countries where the rule of law is lacking and rogue leaders fragrantly violate human rights. Caribbean countries were once the scene of the most horrifying human rights abuses known to humanity, and it is therefore, our historical and moral responsibility to do whatever we can to make sure that the darkest chapters of human history are not repeated on other shores and in other lands. [...] ”

Judge Patrick Robinson is the current President of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)