"Regionalstrategie Westafrika - Petra Bayr - 28.10.2014" by SPÖ Presse und Kommunikation is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 .

Member of Parliament Ms. Petra Bayr and Colleagues to the Federal Minister for European and International Affairs concerning the introduction of the Crime of Aggression, the fifth criminal offense  before the International Criminal Court.

QUESTION:

According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (International Criminal Court - ICC) based in The Hague, the ICC is currently authorized to try the offenses of international criminal law: genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. In June 2010, the States Parties have adopted the Kampala amendment to the Rome Statute. This provides amongst other things that the ICC can prosecute cases of the Crime of Aggression. This would make it possible to take leaders accountable if they have committed an act of aggression in the way that violates the prohibition of force in the UN Charter clearly. Secondly, the Kampala amendment includes an extension of the existing state of affairs of war crimes, so that the use of poison and poisoned weapons, gas and similar substances and devices and the use of semi-jacketed bullets not only in international but also in non-international armed conflicts may be declared punishable.

The expansion of the Rome Statute provides among other things an important contribution to the peaceful coexistence of nations and to the end of impunity for most serious crimes of international concern.

So far, already seven countries (Botswana, Germany, Estonia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Samoa and Trinidad and Tobago) ratified these changes and they will soon be joined by Uruguay. Every ratification is a step toward the activation of the ICC’s jurisdiction, which requires at least 30 ratifications, in addition to a one time activation decision by two thirds of the states parties.

In June 2013, the Swiss Federal Council began the consultation process for the ratification of the amendment to the statute. The same is needed in Switzerland to ratify major international treaties. In the case of the Kampala Amendments this will take until 20 October 2013.

The undersigned deputies therefore provide to the Federal Minister for European and International Affairs following

QUESTION:

1) Is your department, taking steps towards the ratification of the Kampala Amendments?
a. If yes, which steps?
b. If not, why not?

2) In which time frame is your department is planning to ratify the Kampala Amendments?