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PGA’s vision is to contribute to the creation of a Rules-Based International Order for a more equitable, safe, sustainable and democratic world.

2011 Working Session on the ICC convened by the Permanent Council of the OAS

Reception offered by the Uruguayan Mission to the OAS for Dip. Felipe Michelini (PGA, Uruguay) with Hos Amb. Maria Lujan (OEA, Uruguay), Amb. Insulza, Secretary General, OAS, and Deborah Ruiz Verduzco (PGA, International Law and Human Rights Program)
Reception offered by the Uruguayan Mission to the OAS for Dip. Felipe Michelini (PGA, Uruguay) with Hos Amb. Maria Lujan (OEA, Uruguay), Amb. Insulza, Secretary General, OAS, and Deborah Ruiz Verduzco (PGA, International Law and Human Rights Program)

On March 10, 2011, PGA, represented by Board member Dip. Felipe Michelini (Uruguay), participated in the high-level segment of the 7th Special Session on the ICC held by the Committee of Political Affairs of the OAS. Dip. Michelini shared the panel with OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza, the Chair of the Committee Amb. Hugo de Sela (Peru) and Amb. Christian Wenaweser, President of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP). His presentation reported PGA's take on the outcomes of the First Review Conference of the Rome Statute of the ICC, held in Kampala, Uganda in May-June 2010, listing the four challenges for the fight against impunity: universality, complementarity, cooperation and entry into force of the amendments to the Rome Statute, especially that with respect to the crime of aggression.

Dip. Michelini welcomed the 26th ratification of the Rome Statute in the hemisphere, that of Saint Lucia and acknowledged the role of the states parties of the Rome Statute represented at the OAS in promoting the universal ratification of the Rome Statute, especially through the Human Rights Council and the ASP. Dip. Michelini called upon the nine member states, from El Salvador to Jamaica pending to join the Rome Statute, to speed up their ratification processes.

With respect to complementarity, Dip. Michelini acknowledged the role that the Model Text of crimes to be adopted by the Inter-American Committee will play to ensure the full implementation of the Rome Statute in domestic legal orders of the hemisphere. He also called upon the Committee to ensure the inclusion of the definition of the crime of aggression as well as the general principles of law contained in part III of the Rome Statute and the adequate jurisdictional bases in the Model Text.

With respect to cooperation, Dip. Michelini recalled the nine arrest warrants of the ICC pending to be executed and laid out a plan of legislative and political commitments for OAS member states, including support to the Court within the Security Council to impede the invocation of Article 16 of the Rome Statute as a tool to control the ICC Prosecutor and in situations where no imminent global danger could be proven.

Finally, Diputado Michelni higlighted the historic achievement of the Review Conference in reaching a consensus definition and a jurisdictional mechanism to prosecute the crime of aggression. He welcomed the commitments of OAS states to ratify the amendment and called upon states not yet party to the Rome Statute, including both Nicaragua and the United States to acknowledge this important development to address their historic claims thus join the Rome Statute as soon as possible.

PGA joined the Inter-American Committee Rapporteur on the ICC, the OAS Department of International Law, the ICC, and the CICC and ICRC in a meeting of the informal technical group for the promotion of the ICC in the Americas.