By Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC TIMES 

NEW YORK –  The President of the International Criminal Court, Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, chose powerful words from American political icon Eleanor Roosevelt to drive home the importance of the war tribunal. The ICC President addressed the United Nations General Assembly Monday on the occasion of presenting the Court’s annual report to the UN for 2017/2018.  “And whenever we think of human history as being also a history of ‘unimaginable atrocities that shock the conscience’ of humankind, let us also remember the following wise words of Eleanor Roosevelt:  ‘It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.’  The ICC was such a candle, lit 20 years ago. It behoves all to keep it alight’,”  Judge Eboe-Osuji stated. He reminded the UN General Assembly that the Rome Statute treaty established the ICC 20 years ago as the Court of the Last Resort. Eboe-Osuji also stated that the world must remain troubled by the “unrelenting frequency of armed conflicts in the world” today.  To that end, he said it is in this respect that the objectives of the United Nations and the ICC remain “unsurprisingly at one.” Oboe-Osuji said they commonly involve the global project to protect peace and security and human rights, through multilateral cooperation and action-backed by the international rule of law.

ICC President Defends War Tribunal’s Jurisdiction Against Trump Administration’s  Attacks

After the Trump Administration unleashed one of the most scathing public attacks on an global judicial institution in recent memory, the ICC vowed to continue investigating war crimes, including those committed by Americans. In an unprecedented, vitriolic attack on the ICC, US National Security Adviser John Bolton last month damned the Hague-based war tribunal as “ineffective, unaccountable,” “outright dangerous” and “contrary to American principles.” Bolton has called the ICC a “usurper of national sovereignty.” 

“But, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentleman: any fear that the ICC is a usurper of national sovereignty proceeds from a clear misunderstanding of the nature of the ICC’s jurisdiction. Please, allow me to restate and emphasize here the message that the ICC does note usurp or undermine national sovereignty. Yes, the ICC is unusually deferential to national sovereignty: far more so than any other known order of alternative jurisdiction for the administration of justice.”

ICC President 
Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji speech before
United Nations General Assembly 29 October 2018

Speaking on Eleanor Roosevelt, Eboe-Osuji said the wife of  President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a great champion of history and human civilization. “We should all get used to calling her ‘the mother of human rights,’ ” he said, noting her call for united action to improve the world under the banner of the United Nations. ‘Our own land and our own flag cannot be replaced by any other land or any other flag,’ Eleanor Roosevelt. ‘But, you can join other nations, under a joint flag, to accomplish something good for the world that you cannot accomplish alone.’