Action Alert

The following action alert has been distributed by UNA-USA Headquarters.  Please help with this appeal.

March 15, 2002

TO: UNA-USA Chapters & Divisions
FROM: UNA HQ
RE: US-ICC POLICY ACTION ALERT

The United States may announce, as soon as the end of this month, the results of its policy review of the International Criminal Court (ICC). It is important for the Bush Administration to hear your views immediately
about the importance of supporting and cooperating with the Court, which probably will be established within the next couple of months. Your letters to President Bush, with points suggested in the text below, can make a
critical difference at this moment of decision.

The sixtieth ratification necessary to bring the ICC's Rome Treaty into force is likely to be realized during the next round of UN negotiations on setting up the Court (April 8-19). It is entirely possible that the Administration will want to announce its policy prior to that session. The United Nations is completing plans now for the Secretary-General to convene the Court's inauguration in September.

The policy review may recommend the unprecedented and controversial step of nullifying the United States signature of the Rome Treaty. Nullification would make it easier for the U.S. government to take actions to undermine the ICC in the future. The policy review may endorse some of these. We strongly believe that the best way to protect American interests and advance the cause of international justice is to maintain the U.S. signature on the treaty and work cooperatively with other governments to ensure that the ICC is established as a court of high integrity and fairness.

In your letters you may also wish to include such additional points as the following:
--The Court will not have jurisdiction over nations or governments, only over individuals.
--The prosecutor is accountable to the Court's governing body, the Assembly of States Parties.

Please copy your letters to the Secretaries of State and Defense and to the
National Security Adviser as they will be advising the President on this
issue. Please write immediately.

Addresses

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Honorable Colin Powell
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
Washington, DC 20520

Dr. Condoleezza Rice
Assistant to the President, National Security Affairs
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Honorable Donald Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000

*****

Dear Mr. President:

I understand that a government policy review on the International Criminal
Court (ICC) may soon make recommendations to you. The ICC will come into
existence in the next few months and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is
expected to inaugurate it formally in September. I believe it is important
that in deciding on your administration's ultimate policy toward the new
court, officials recognize the many safeguards in the ICC treaty regime that
protect American interests and the court's future capacity to prosecute mass
murderers like the late Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein.

The large numbers of ratifications of the ICC treaty show that the members
of the court's governing body will be overwhelmingly our allies and friends
in Europe, Latin America, and Africa. Rogue states have not ratified the
ICC treaty because that would give the court automatic jurisdiction over
atrocities committed on their own territory or by their nationals. We
should lead those governments that are joining the court and thus advance
American interests.

America has always led in the cause of international justice, and is doing
so today in the war against terrorism. Our partners in the anti-terrorism
coalition are the strongest supporters of the ICC. Please reaffirm this
nation's commitment to the rule of law and our proud heritage of military
justice by standing shoulder-to-shoulder with democratic and free nations as
the ICC is established and opportunities for cooperation with it arise.

Sincerely,

Concerned constituent

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