RIGHTS-UN
US Believed Ready to Shift Stance on Criminal Court
By Farhan Haq
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 15 (IPS) - The United States, long wary of creating an independent prosecutor for international crimes, is moving closer to accepting just such a position for the proposed International Criminal Court (ICC), according to political sources here.
U.N. members meet on Monday to begin three weeks of preparatory discussions on establishing the court before a final conference in Rome June 15-July 17.
The United States is ready to abandon its insistence that the prosecutor for the Court could only act on orders from the Security Council, sources say. ''(U.S. officials) are very worried about being perceived as not being on the side of the angels on this one,'' one human- rights expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS.
''As a result, we've been getting a variety of signals that they are going to drop the idea that the Security Council could veto any prosecution.''
A shift by Washington on the issue could be decisive, since it would change the balance of power among the five veto-holding members of the 15-nation Security Council on whether that body should vote prior to any ICC prosecution of criminal cases. Currently, the United States believes the Council should be able to authorise - or block - prosecution in any potential case involving conflicts that are being discussed in the Council already.
Of the other four permanent members, Britain and China have approved, to varying degrees, some level of autonomy for an ICC prosecutor from Security Council rulings.
Russia has been more wary, while France has insisted on Council control over the prosecutor. A U.S. shift toward the British position of not requiring Council approval ''would definitely isolate France on the question of control,'' argued Richard Dicker, associate counsel for Human Rights Watch.
Many human-rights experts want greater autonomy for the prosecutor's office, and some see it as essential if the ICC is to be effective.
''There is more to fear from an impotent than from an over-reaching prosecutor,'' argued Justice Louise Arbour, the Canadian chief prosecutor for the U.N. tribunals dealing with war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, at a recent meeting here.
However, some human-rights experts are wary that Washington still wants to keep several checks on the powers of any prosecutor - who, under current ICC plans, would be empowered to investigate genocide and a variety of war crimes, including mass murder and rape.
U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, David Scheffer, is still considering several conditions for any ICC prosecution, including the consent of the country that would be investigated.
Such a prerequisite, which would effectively allow for a veto from any government being accused of war crimes, would be a deal- breaker, the source added. Scheffer has not changed the public U.S. position in recent months since indicating some interest in a compromise proposed by Singapore, in which the Security Council would not authorise ICC prosecutions but could explicitly vote for the Court to stay out of certain pending cases.
Under the Singapore compromise, the Council would also have to renew that negative command every 12 months or allow the ICC to have jurisdiction. ''The merit of the Singapore proposal is that it recognises the legitimate role of the Security Council,'' Scheffer said during preparatory talks about the Court last fall. Since then, however, an unrelated matter has prodded Washington to improve its image on the creation of the Court.
Last December, the U.S. government resisted international pressure to sign on to the Ottawa Convention banning landmine production and deployment - a decision that tarnished U.S. President Bill Clinton's reputation for cooperating with international treaties and bodies.
Now, one rights official claims, the Clinton administration's worry is to avoid a 'Landmines II' controversy that could pit them against traditional allies such as Canada and Western Europe.
Currently, argued Dicker, most European nations - with the exception of France - support an ICC with a strong and independent prosecutor's office.
A substantial bloc of Latin American and Caribbean states, as well as some two dozen African countries and even some Asian nations - notably South Korea and Singapore - have also strongly pushed for greater ICC powers, he added.
The prosecutor controversy is not the only one that will come up over the next few weeks. Aldo Facio, of the non-governmental Women's Caucus for Gender Justice at the International Criminal Court, argued that there also needs to be ''balance between men and women in all the organs of the Court.'' Several women's rights groups want the Court to be able to examine a wide range of gender-based crimes, from the use of rape during wartime to the 'gender apartheid' for which groups like Afghanistan's Taliban militias stand accused. (END/IPS/fah/mk/98)