Human rights defenders seek implementation of the Rome Statute all over Moldova

The human rights organisations salute the fact that the bill on the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is on the Parliament’s agenda and demand that it is implemented all over Moldova, Info-Prim Neo. In a press release, the signatory organisations say that the stipulations of the bill saying that the Rome Statute will be implemented only on the territory controlled by the constitutional authorities should be excluded. If the bill is ratified as it is currently drafted, the Rome Statute will not be applied on the left bank of the Nistru. The signatories consider that in such a way the Moldovan authorities will create legal conditions for the genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Transnistrian region to remain unpunished, while the offenders, from the region or from other parts of the world, will be able to hide on the territory of the breakaway republic. The defenders of human rights do not understand why the Moldovan authorities intend to leave a part of Moldova’s territory and residents without the additional protection offered by the Rome Statute, especially in the circumstances in which the offenders answer before the court and not the state. This is the difference between the International Criminal Court and the European Court of Human Rights, which punishes the state for the violations and not the persons to blame, the communiqué says. The press release was signed by Amnesty International Moldova, the Human Rights Resource Centre (CReDO), the Medical Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims “Memoria”, Jurists for Human Rights, Promo-Lex, and the International Society for Human Rights – Moldovan Section. Earlier, the Coalition for the International Criminal Court that brings together over 2,500 public organisations from all over the world called on the Moldovan authorities to ratify the Rome Statute without limiting its effect to the controlled territory only. Moldova signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on September 8, 2000. In the spring of 2006, the Ministry of Justice prepared the bills necessary to ratify the Rome Statute and adjust the national legislation to the Statute’s requirements. On October 2, 2007, the Constitutional Court of Moldova, following an application from the Government, adopted a decision saying that the stipulations of the Rome Statute and the Constitution of Moldova are compatible. The bill on the ratification of the Rome Statute approved by the Government on December 7, 2007 was introduced into the Parliament’s agenda on January 29, 2008 and was published on the Parliament’s website on February 11, 2008.