Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Moscow, 12 September 1998
N° 13

The Inter-Parliamentary Council - the IPU's governing body - adopted a resolution on Friday in which it "urges the early signature and ratification of the Statute of the International Criminal Court by all States which have not already done so and recommends that the parliaments of those States work actively towards this end; further recommends that all parliaments exert their influence for the speedy establishment and effective functioning of the Court".

This question was appropriately placed in the text of the report of the Committee to Promote Respect for International Humanitarian Law and the Banning of Antipersonnel Mines, which states that the Inter-Parliamentary Council welcomes the adoption of the Statute of the International Criminal Court and calls on parliaments to take action to secure the universal ratification of its Statute and to do everything in their power to ensure that this new international jurisdiction is set up without delay.

Anticipating the event, Mr Miguel Angel Martínez, President of the Inter-Parliamentary Council already stated in Rome last June, a month before the adoption of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, in his address to the Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of the Court, that ever since it was founded the IPU has striven to promote the implementation of international law, particularly through the establishment of an International Criminal Court.