§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on Her Majesty's Government's policy towards 471W the creation of the International Criminal Court, indicating those areas of jurisdiction for such a Court which it is the policy of Her Majesty's Government to support. [45780]
§ Mr. Tony LloydWe continue to support the establishment of an effective International Criminal Court, and will do all we can to ensure a successful outcome to the Diplomatic Conference which is currently taking place in Rome. In my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Mr. Olner) of 24 February 1998,Official Report, column 191, I drew attention to a paper on Government policy towards the proposed Court which we had placed in the Libraries of the House. My noble Friend Lord Whitty also made a detailed statement of our policy on the Court in a debate in another place on 11 June 1998, Official Report, House of Lords, columns 947–62. We believe that the Court should have jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. We also believe that the Court should have jurisdiction over the crime of aggression where the UN Security Council has determined that an act of aggression has taken place, and provided that the crime is properly defined in the Statute.
§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is Her Majesty's Government's policy on the appointment of an international prosecutor to investigate independently crime within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in circumstances where(a) the UN Security Council and (b) individual members of the national Government have not given their consent. [45781]
§ Mr. Tony LloydWe have reserved our position on whether the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court should have the power to initiate investigations on his or her own authority in circumstances in which a situation has not been referred either by the UN Security Council or by a State Party to the Court. Irrespective of how an investigation is initiated, however, we believe that the Prosecutor should be independent of Governments in the conduct of his investigations. The consent of the State where an alleged crime had taken place should not be required before an investigation or prosecution in respect of that crime can take place, if that State is a Party to the Treaty establishing the Court. Nor should the approval of the Security Council be necessary for an investigation or a prosecution to take place.