KARACHI, Dec 28: Speakers at a meeting here on Thursday urged the government to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) so that the criminals fleeing the country after committing a crime could be tried and punished through an international judicial body.

The meeting, titled the ICC Consultation, was organised jointly by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child and the Pakistan Coalition of the NGOs on ICC.

They recalled that over 120 states had voted for the Rome Statute of the ICC at the UN-sponsored conference held in July 1998. There were seven votes against while 21 states abstained. More than 99 countries have already ratified the treaty, which seeks to establish the first permanent and independent International Criminal Court.

The speakers said that in a record time of just four years, the required 60 states had ratified the treaty which came into force on July 1, 2002.

A state having ratified the treaty and the UN Security Council may refer a case, like crime against humanity, genocide, war-crime and aggression, to the ICC in The Hague for investigation and trial. The ICC does not have its own police force.

A former Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, Iqbal A. Detho, Akhtar Baloch, Sharjeel Kharal and Kashif Bajeer were among those who spoke at the meeting.

They observed that one reason for Pakistan’s reluctance to sign the Rome Statute could be the fear that her troops deployed in different regions under the command of the UN Peace Keeping Force might be exposed to the ICC.They noted that that the case of the United States was interesting, and recalled that Washington had signed the treaty in 2000 but the new administration coming to power two years later nullified the signature. They said that Washington was trying to undermine the treaty by pressuring its members and would-be-members to enter into bilateral agreements instead so that immunity to the suspects of US origin could be saved from being prosecuted by the ICC.The so-called bilateral immunity agreements (BIAs) do not only undermine the court but also destroy the established norms of international laws, they observed, and said that the US approach tantamount to protecting US nationals as above the law.

The speakers also made mention of the cumbersome procedure vis-a-vis approaching the court, indicating that since becoming operational some four yours back, the ICC could have started trial of quite a few cases, pertaining to Congo, Sudan, Uganda.