Your Majesties, Your Royal Highness, Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Secretary-General, Your Excellencies the Heads of State and Government, Your Excellencies the Ambassadors, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my great honour to represent the Government of France at this fourth and final round in the series of Stockholm International Forum conferences. From the very beginning of the Forum, France has taken a great interest in its work. I would like here to pay tribute to our host country and welcome the pertinent choice of preventing genocide as the subject with which to close this series of conferences. The memory of the Holocaust should be a sufficient safeguard against extremist deviations. In fact, the risk of genocide, mass extermination, unspeakable crimes is not a thing of the past. The recent history of Rwanda and former Yugoslavia has opened our eyes to this unfortunate fact. In every case, the international community has responded, following armed intervention, by recourse to the law. For the past ten years, we have been building a system of international criminal justice that seems to me one of the essential means of protection against the risks not only of genocide, but also, naturally, of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

With the establishment of the International Criminal Court, we have entered into a new era of deterrence: deterrence by law and justice. All too often, impunity has permitted serious attacks on entire peoples, or certain categories of the population, to continue – and this is sometimes still the case today. There must no longer be any sanctuary for those responsible for crimes of such magnitude. This is the direction I have instructed my staff to follow in drafting the Government Bill for adapting our domestic law to the Treaty of Rome that I will shortly be presenting to Parliament.

As an institution that has permanent jurisdiction, the International Criminal Court should be able to play this preventive role. It is not enough to prevent crimes from being committed; we must also seek ways to prevent the causes that encourage them to be committed. Racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia are the breeding ground that has fed and spawned the worst atrocities of history. The fight against racism must take on all necessary forms, ranging from pure and simple suppression of racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic words and deeds to education in tolerance and respect for others. I have been engaged in this struggle in France. But it is necessary to pursue joint action at regional and global level. For racism exploits the differences between legislation in different countries, and the development of electronic communications technologies has added to our vulnerability.We must together define the conduct that deserves our condemnation so as to succeed in counteracting it. This is the purpose of the protocol concerning cyber crime drafted within the framework of the Council of Europe. And within the European Union, our efforts to achieve harmonisation have intensified further. At national level, the government had a text adopted by Parliament in February 2003, which makes provision for stiffer criminal penalties when the deeds committed have a racist, xenophobic or anti-Semitic motive.

I have proposed draft legislation aimed at adapting the justice system to meet developments in crime. This legislation, which is currently under discussion in Parliament, makes provision for improving the prosecution of racist messages by extending the deadline for public proceedings from three months to one year. It also strengthens the sanctions incurred in cases involving discrimination.

Finally, the President of the Republic has taken a public interest in the establishment within the next few months of an independent administrative authority for combating discrimination, in line with European directives in this area.

To conclude, I would like to emphasise the full place that must be accorded to the victims of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. One station on the way to preventing future genocides is a thorough consideration of past victims. This is why France has set such stock by the Treaty of Rome giving victims the possibility of participating to the full in the process of investigation and judgment. This is why we were equally committed to the creation of a fund for compensating victims. “Symbolic” reparation in the form of recognition of the suffering they have endured and effective reparation of their wrongs – even if some suffering is irreparable – together constitute a first stage towards the reconciliation and assuagement that are necessary in all prevention of future risks.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the international community bears a great responsibility for preventing genocide. The development of and respect for law and international justice are precious tools for prevention.We must all help ensure their complete success.