PARIS, December 18, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Lawyers’ associations from all over the world met in Paris December 6 and 7 to create an international criminal lawyers’ association for the International Criminal Court. Canadian Liberal MP Irwin Cotler announced the meeting in Parliament noting that the Canadian government co-sponsored the event.
The conference, organized by the International Criminal Defence Attorneys Association – with headquarters in Montreal, was expected to bring together over 300 experts from the bar associations of 60 countries. The aim of the meeting was to generate a pool of lawyers to provide of legal counsel to both individuals accused and the victims of ‘crimes’ within the court’s jurisdiction. Cotler said, “Indeed the conference dramatizes just how close we are to having the ICC.” He also noted that the Rome statute “received the 47th of the 60 ratifications needed to create the court just last week.”
Once 60 countries have ratified the treaty the ICC will assume universal jurisdiction even over countries that have not signed on to the agreement. Explanatory material on the ICC released by the Canadian government during its hasty passage of ICC ratification stated: “It would not be a defence that an offence was committed in obedience to the law in force at the time and in the place of its commission.” Canadian delegations to the UN have for years been consistently among the most aggressive in attempting to use the world body’s agencies, including the ICC, to override national sovereignty and force radical social change on the world’s nations.
(House of Commons Hansard – Dec. 5, 2001)
For more on the pro-life concerns with the ICC see: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/oct/011002.html#1