Miriam to start campaign for ICC at The Hague

This is a news report that I’ve taken in toto relating to the Ilonggo Senator's bid to the ICC.

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, the Philippines’ candidate as judge to the International Criminal Court (ICC) that prosecutes war crimes and gross human rights violations, had sought support for her candidacy at the tribunal’s headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands.

Santiago began her week-long visit with a courtesy call on ICC president Sang-hyun Song last Sept. 26, followed by meetings with ICC Registrar Silvana Arbia and Judge Kuniko Ozaki.

She also held one-on-one meetings with the ambassadors of ICC state parties and spent the next two days meeting with civil society groups.

The Hague is home to the ICC, an independent international body, separate from the United Nations system, and the first permanent international court that deals specifically with the gravest crimes facing humanity.

Elections for the six vacant seats for judges of the ICC will be held on December 12-21, during the Tenth Session of the Assembly of States Parties in New York.

In her meetings, Santiago shared her views on some challenges facing the ICC such as state cooperation and increasing the budget of the court to enable it to fulfill its mandate.

“The court must continue with what it is doing: building itself as an efficient and professional international organization, functioning as a credible international court and holding itself as a purely judicial, objective, non-political and neutral institution,” Santiago said.

The ICC has been active since 2002 and most of the cases referred to the court have been from the African countries of the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Uganda.

Any state leader, member of national legislature, or government official at a similarly high level could be investigated and prosecuted by the ICC if he/she commits core crimes under the tribunal’s jurisdiction like war crimes or genocide.