- Mukashema, a member of Avega, an organisation formed by Rwandan widows and funded by Oxfam

As a development and relief agency committed to alleviating poverty, distress and suffering in many parts of the world Oxfam is repeatedly confronted with the experiences of people who have lived through violent conflict.

Oxfam has a key role in the witnessing of the grave human rights violations which characterise war and conflict and builds upon this in its policy and advocacy work. For these reasons, Oxfam has been working to support the creation of an independent, effective and impartial International Criminal Court (ICC).

Violence against civilians is no longer an accidental side-effect of conflict, but more often a deliberate strategy which causes poverty andsuffering on an enormous scale. Historically, governments have neither taken effective action to prevent wars, nor adequately protected civilians caught up in war. Oxfam believes that it is time for all governments to demonstrate a genuine commitment to tackling crimes committed during conflicts and other crimes against humanity through the establishment of the ICC.

Throughout the ages, women have been the subject of sexual violence,exacerbated during war and conflict. This is one reason it is vital to ensure that the rights and perspectives of women are fully incorporated into the Statute of the court, its rules and the way it functions.

Therefore, crimes falling within the jurisdiction of the court must specifically include crimes against women. All the gender dimensions of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity must be included in the final Statute of the ICC.

The Court must also have jurisdiction over the same crimes in non-international and international conflicts. We are committed to the view that actions such as the employment of weapons that are inherently indiscriminate, such as land-mines, and the deliberate starvation of civilians, must give rise to the Court's jurisdiction, whether the conflict be international or internal.

The Statute must provide for an independent prosecutor, empowered to instigate an investigation on the basis of information from any source.Oxfam is committed to a court which takes action on behalf of ordinary people.

This means that victims, their representatives and civil society organisations must be able to bring situations of serious violations of international law to the attention of the Court. This is a key area for women because such a mechanism is the most appropriate for enabling women's groups and other organisations to present their information to the prosecution.

The Court must not be subject to the control of the Security Council. Any overriding power given to the UNSC would enable members to protect potential defendants whenever their own country's interests are involved. This would seriously damage the Court's impartiality and allow political considerations to override the rule of law.

We all have a compelling responsibility to grasp this historic opportunity and create a permanent mechanism to put an end to the inertia and complacency that surrounds violations of the most fundamental human rights. Suzanne Williams and Sarah Maguire, Oxfam