Government type:

Parliamentary Democracy. Tuvalu is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Objective:

Deposit of the instrument of accession to the Rome Statute at the UN.

Status

• Rome Statute: not signed or acceded

• APIC: not signed or acceded

• Amendments to the RS: none

• BNSA: Entered into force on 03 February 2003

Background:

In February 2012, the EU signed a grant contract agreement of $2.3M with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat to assist small Pacific island countries that have a limited human capacity and financial resources to ratify and report on international norms and standard, including accession to the Rome Statute.

At the 2012, ICC Pacific Outreach Roundtable in Sydney the representative of Tuvalu noted lacunae in the government’s experience in relation to the Rome Statute system, she iterated the government’s viewpoint that becoming a State Party was an objective, and reported that a RS accession bill had been filed for deliberation and approval by the Parliament.

At the 16th session of the Universal Periodic Review (22 April - 3 May 2013), Tuvalu accepted two recommendations: to accede to the Rome Statute (made by Australia and Uruguay) and one recommendation to accede to the Rome Statute and the APIC (Estonia). However, during the presentation by the State under review, the delegation reiterated that “the Government had already endorsed accession to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”

Tuvalu has completed its domestic process with the Cabinet already having endorsed the accession. The only remaining step is for the government to deposit the instrument at the UN.

Potential Obstacles

• The BNSA with the US could be an issue, however, this might not be the case given that in practice, all that is outstanding is the deposit of the instrument of accession.

• It is possibly not high on the country`s agenda

• Financial reasons

PGA Activities

In July 2011, during the Commonwealth Law Ministers meeting, then Prime Minister Willy Telavi said he would be happy to consider technical assistance from the Commonwealth, and asked the President of the ICC to write to him setting out the key points.

PGA Members in New Zealand have been pushing for Tuvalu's accession to the Rome Statute since years. They hold a number of bilateral meetings with MPs and the AG.

In February 2014, a high official in the government informed PGA that the RS accession bill was sent to Parliament, upon which PGA mobilized its members, but it appears that Parliament failed to take the necessary action for its treatment and adoption.