THE UN: The dream of creating a permanent court to try the world's most heinous crimes became a reality yesterday, hailed by many as a landmark human rights achievement but rejected by the US.
At a solemn ceremony at UN headquarters, 10 countries brought the total number of nations to ratify a Rome treaty establishing the International Criminal Court to 66 - six more than needed to bring the treaty into force on July 1st.
The 10 nations - Ireland, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Congo, Jordan, Mongolia, Niger, Romania and Slovakia - deposited their papers all at the same time so the honour of being the 60th state does not go only to one country.
"The required number of 60 ratifications for the entry into force of the Rome statute has been reached," said chief UN legal counsel, Mr Hans Corell, to sustained applause. "A page in the history of humankind is being turned." The tribunal is expected to go into operation next year in The Hague, Netherlands, a belated effort to fulfil the promise of the Nuremberg trials 56 years ago, when Nazi leaders were prosecuted for new categories of war crimes against humanity.
The new tribunal has jurisdiction only when countries are unwilling or unable to prosecute individuals for the world's most serious atrocities: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other gross human-rights abuses.
Cases can be referred by a country that has ratified the treaty, the UN Security Council or the tribunal's prosecutor after approval from three judges. But the court is not retroactive and cannot probe crimes committed before July 1st.
In a rebuff to its European allies, a major force behind the court, the Bush administration rejected the entire concept of a permanent international war crimes tribunal.
And it is considering withdrawing former president Bill Clinton's signature from the Rome treaty, even though Mr Clinton did not submit it to Congress for ratification, fearing US soldiers abroad would be subjected to frivolous prosecutions.
Republican Congressmen have introduced a smattering of retaliatory legislation, ranging from forbidding any US contact with the court and punishing those ratifying the treaty to using force to free any American brought to The Hague.
Still, when the statute for the court was approved in Rome in June 1998, diplomats believed it would take between 10 and 20 years to ratify, said Mr Phillipe Kirsch, the Canadian head of the court's preparatory commission.
The impetus to establish the court came after the 1992-1995 Bosnian war and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The UN Security Council has established temporary or ad hoc tribunals to try individuals for atrocities committed. The new court would replace such tribunals in the future.
Wars have changed in the last 50 years, with civilians increasingly becoming the main target. Some 86 million men, women and children died in 250 conflicts around the world, according to the Coalition for an International Criminal Court, an umbrella group of 1,000 organisations.
During that period, more than 170 million people were stripped of their rights and property. "Most of these victims have been simply forgotten and few perpetrators have been brought to justice," the coalition said.
UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, said UN member states had dealt a decisive blow to impunity by ratifying the criminal court. "A missing link in the international justice system is now in place," Mr Annan said.
"Those who commit war crimes, genocide or other crimes against humanity will no longer be beyond the reach of justice," Mr Annan said. "Humanity will be able to defend itself, responding to the worst of human nature with one of the greatest human achievements: the rule of law."
Mr Annan added an appeal to the United States. "The best defence against evil will be a court in which every country plays its part." Asked by a reporter how he would answer US concerns, he replied: "Countries with good judicial systems who apply the rule of law and prosecute criminals. and do it promptly and fairly, need not fear. It is where they fail that the court steps in," he added.