ForMin Aurescu at informal ministerial meeting on International Criminal Court of Law

Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu participated on Thursday in the informal ministerial meeting on the International Criminal Court (ICC), traditionally organised by Liechtenstein, on the sidelines of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) announces, agerpres reports.

According to the cited source, in his intervention, Minister Aurescu reconfirmed Romania's constant and firm support for the essential role of the International Criminal Court in combating impunity and consolidating the rule of law on an international level.

The Romanian minister brought to mind that Romania got involved, ever since the inter-war period, in the development of international criminal law, through the exceptional contribution of diplomat and jurist Vespasian Pella, founder of this branch of law and the concept of permanent international criminal court.

He hailed the initiation of the comprehensive process of revision of the Rome Statute system, the founding act of ICC, giving guarantees on Romania's availability to contribute to this exercise being carried out successfully.

In context, Bogdan Aurescu underscored the need for the demarches of consolidation of the Rome Statute not to limit only to the International Criminal Court, but also approach the role of courts of justice nationwide, which are the first called to enforce the Statute, based on the complementarity principle provided by it, as well as the modalities of cooperation among state to make the response to the ICC support requests be as efficient as possible.

The Romanian chief diplomat also underscored Romania's determination to further act for ensuring the efficiency of the Court and protecting its independence, including from the perspective of exercising the term as member in the Assembly of States Parties Bureau in the period 2021-2023.

At the same time, Aurescu referred to the importance of consolidating the Court's public profile, meant to communicate more efficiently about its activity, thus supporting misinformation combat.

Foreign affairs ministers from over 35 states of all geographic areas worldwide, as well as EU's special representative for human rights participated in the event.

The meeting facilitated an exchange of opinions on the proper manners of capitalising on the national commitments to support international criminal justice and the good functioning of the only international court with capacities of investigation and penalisation of individuals involved in the most serious crimes based on international criminal law.