Montevideo / Uruguay

Today, 18 June 2013, the Senate of Uruguay approved unanimously the ratification of the Kampala Amendments to the Rome Statute adopted in June 2010 at the First Review Conference held in Kampala, Uganda.

This ratification follows the also unanimous decision by the Chamber of Deputies on 10 April, and sets Uruguay to become the first Latin American country to ratify the amendments once it deposit the relevant instrument at the United Nations in New York. Uruguay will follow the steps of Botswana, Estonia, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Samoa and Trinidad and Tobago becoming the 8th state party of the Rome Statute to ratify the amendments on the crime of aggression, and contributing to the first 30 ratification required to activate the exercise of jurisdiction over this serious crime under international law by the International Criminal Court.

In the report to the Plenary by the Foreign Affairs Committee, chaird by Sen. Ope Pasquet (Partido Colorado) the Senate is recommended to ratify the Kampala Amendments: “as these constitute a step towards the objectives of international justice as enshrined in the Rome Statute”.

Dip. Felipe Michelini (Frente Amplio), Convenor of the PGA’s International Law and Human Rights Program, celebrating this decision by his peers declared from Montevideo:

The Kampala Amendments operationalise the aspirations to end aggression as provided by the Rome Statute. Sixty years after having ratified the London Agreements that provided the legal basis to the Nuremberg Tribunals, Uruguay continues its work in defense of human dignity through law, as law is what defines civilization and denies barbarity. Dip. Felipe Michelini

The process of ratification of the Kampala Amendments was launched in Uruguay in the context of a Seminar co-organised by the Chamber of Deputies of Uruguay and Parliamentarians for Global Action on 26 July 2012.