Morocco wants International Criminal Court separate from U.N.
Regional, Judicial, 6/20/1998

Morocco welcomes the initiative to create an international criminal court but is of the opinion that it should be separated from the U.N. system, particularly the Security Council.

The statement was made Wednesday by Saad-Eddine Taib, an official from the Moroccan ministry of foreign affairs and cooperation at the U.N. conference held this June 15-17 in Rome on the project to create an international criminal court, Map reported.

Morocco argues this court will be an implement likely to contribute to the respect of human rights and a constraining mechanism to consolidate the roles of public international law. He went on that for the court to be independent, it should enjoy financial autonomy and be separated from the United Nations system, more particularly the Security Council. The Moroccan delegate explained that those are prerequisites for the court to be a judiciary body free from pressures.

The official recalled that Morocco supports the creation of a court, that should be "permanent, universal, efficient, credible, impartial and independent in order to enforce, without complacence and far from all political factors, the law and guarantee justice for all. He underlined that it is necessary to define in a clear and precise manner, the court's prerogatives and its relations with various international bodies. He added that the court's relations with countries should be flexible and marked by cooperation so that the court accomplishes its mission in the best conditions.

Morocco shares the view of countries which argue that the court should deal with cases of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, the Moroccan official said, adding that the aggression crime has a particular nature, in view of its political implication, and should not therefore be part of the court's prerogatives which should be purely judiciary.

On the relations between the projected international court and national courts of member countries, he said they should be based on complementarity and the international court should only interfere in case national courts fail to issue a ruling, refuses to examine a case or if the sentence is deemed insufficient.

For Morocco, the international court's sole interlocutor should be states.

"It becomes clear that without the member-states' cooperation on the basis of mutual trust and collaboration and the respect of national penal laws, this judiciary institution will not be able to play its role effectively," the Moroccan official concluded.

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