WAR CRIMES MUST NOT GO UNPUNISHED

"Never again". That was the cry of all of humankind after the discovery of the horrors of the Second World War. To make sure that crimes committed against human beings "guilty" of being on the wrong side or simply of being from a given religious, cultural or political community would not take place again, or would not go unpunished, the Geneva Conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were adopted.

Alas, sixty years later, human rights violations, including torture, are once again practiced all over the world.

Interviewed on the occasion of a panel discussion held during the 111th IPU Assembly, Mr. Marco Sassoli, a professor at the University of Geneva, spoke of the step backwards that had been taken in recent years, stating that "Some parliaments, for good or bad reasons, have modified their countries' laws governing war crimes, thus restricting the authority of the courts". He gave the example of how some countries prosecute war crimes. "In this case, elected officials must be aware that they are not only changing the law of their own countries for reasons of political opportunity, but that their actions also influence the development of certain rules at the international level."

The people's representatives are called upon to held ensure that international humanitarian law is respected. Another panelist, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mr. Jakob Kellenberger, invite them to make "the greatest effort possible to integrate international humanitarian law treaties in their domestic legislation", and to remember those instruments at the international level. Of course, there is no world parliament. But as Mr. Sassoli said, "If the United Nations General Assembly cannot adopt binding rules, parliaments must understand their own responsibility as instruments of the international community".

Mr. Sassoli acknowledges that the universal competence to prosecute war crimes has faltered owing to a lack of political will, stating that "Sometimes, agreements are signed, laws are adopted, when it is clear from the circumstances that they will be violated". But he maintains that parliamentarians have an important role to play to ensure that "when a person is arrested for a war crime, it is not perceived as a political act, but rather as a legal mechanism and a question of respect for the law".

Ms. Elizabeth Wilmshurst, a former adviser to the British Foreign Office and currently the head of the international law programme at Chatham House, agrees: "The International Criminal Court is the newest mechanism to enforce international humanitarian law. But more than 60 of the 96 States party to it have not yet legislated to allow them to cooperate with the Court and to incorporate in their own national laws the crimes which are subject to the Court's jurisdiction". This is urgently needed, she said; it would allow a tremendous development in the enforcement of international humanitarian law. And it is for parliaments to do. "One major problem is how to get armed groups to comply with international humanitarian law when the methods they use, such as terrorism, are directly contrary to the law. In part, it must be done in the same way that one tries to get States to enforce international law in general - which is a weak body of law. We must rely on extralegal methods, such as the media, which tells the story, to bring pressure to bear".

L.B.