Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has said that the government was committed to accede to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
PM Koirala made this commitment during discussion with a delegation team on ICC at his residence in Baluwatar, Kathmandu on 26 August 2006. The team was in Nepal to discuss the matter with PM and concerned stakeholdres.
During the metting, Koirala said that the Nepal Government was currently focusing on peace and on bringing CPN (Maoists) to the main stream politics adding the government would take necessary initiative to accede to the ICC Treaty. He further said that it was not a problem for the government as the HoR had already directed the government in this regard.
The team included Dr. Ahmed Ziauddin of Asian Network for the ICC (ANICC), Ms. Evelyn Serrano of Coalition for ICC-Asia, Ms. Niza Concepcion of FORUM-ASIA, Dr. Nazrul Islam and Katherine Aylwin of Odhikar, Bangladesh, Subodh Raj Pyakurel of Chiarperson of INSEC, Bijaya Raj Gautam, director and Bimal Chandra Sharma.
In another programme organized jointly by FORUM-ASIA and INSEC in Lalitpur on 26 August, international delegation team discussed with parliamentarians, government officials, human rights activists, law professionals, journalists, civil society members and members of OHCHR and ICRC on the establishment, jurisdiction, importance and functions of ICC.
In the programme, speaker of HoR Subash Nemwang, recalling that the HoR had unanimously passed a directive proposal on July 25 asking the government to ratify ICC, said that he was committed for the ratification. He appealed the government to ratify the ICC soon.
Similarly, resource persons had shed light on the main provisions of the Rome Statute, mechanisms of ICC, participation and rights of the victim, agreement between UN and ICC, state obligation on accession and implementation of Rome Statute, development of ICC and campaign on ICC in Asia. Dr. Ahmed Ziauddin of Asian Network for the ICC (ANICC), Ms. Evelyn Serrano of Coalition for ICC-Asia, Ms. Niza Concepcion of FORUM-ASIA, Dr. Nazrul Islam of Odhikar, Bangladesh and Ananda Mohan Bhattarai, judge, Appeallate Court Jumla and the faculty of the Judicial Academy of Nepal were the resource persons of the programme. |
