ICC Press Release, 20 April 2009
The International Criminal Court (ICC) strongly refutes that two of its judges who will come to Kenya in the next days to attend a regional parliamentary event will unofficially start preparations for handling cases of post-election violence in The Hague”, as stated in an article of the Nairobi Star on 17 April 2009.
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window.google_render_ad();Judges David Daniel Ntanda Nsereko (Uganda) and Joyce Aluoch (Kenya) will deliver remarks and participate in discussions at an East African Parliamentary Workshop on Implementation of the Rome Statute, the founding instrument of the Court, to be held on 23 and 24 April 2009 in Nairobi. The workshop will be hosted by the National Assembly of Kenya and co-organised by Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), a network of key parliamentarians from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania that promotes peace, democracy, sustainable development, human rights and the rule of law since 1978.
While Judges Nsereko and Aluoch will interact with other participants of the workshop, addressing outstanding challenges for East African countries to implement the Rome Statute, they will not have meetings with Kenyan government officials nor discuss in any way the eventuality of the Kenya situation to be referred to the ICC. Furthermore, contrary to what was mentioned in the article, they will not be accompanied by a team of experts on international law.
The visit of Judges Nsereko and Aluoch is not related at all to the preliminary analysis that the Office of the Prosecutor is conducting into the post-election violence in Kenya in early 2008, as suggested in the article published.
Judges of the International Criminal Court are impartial and independent magistrates. They are responsible for conducting the proceedings of the Court at different stages. They never engage in discussions concerning potential situations prior to these being submitted to them in the course of properly instituted legal proceedings.
Only the Office of the Prosecutor, an organ of the Court which operates separately and independently from the judicial divisions, is responsible for conducting the preliminary analysis in Kenya. The visit of Judges Nsereko and Aluoch to Kenya does not prejudge in any way the outcome of this analysis.
