Mr. Chairman

The remarkable effort of the Swedish government in holding the series of conferences of which this is part, should be matched by a joint effort of us all to ensure practical follow-up.

As a first priority, we should consolidate the principle and practise of individual criminal responsibility for genocide and the most heinous crimes.

Genocide is committed because of a person’s belonging to a collective group. This makes it all the more important that persons perpetrating genocide are held individually responsible. Every Serb cannot be responsible for Srebrenica. Every German could not be responsible for the Holocaust.

By dealing with international crimes through tribunals establishing individual guilt, we will help do away with the concept of collective guilt that may otherwise lay the foundation for the next genocide some years down the line.

This is why the ICC is so important. But as the genocide convention alone does not prevent genocide, the ICC statute alone does not ensure justice. We need, as governments supporting the principle of international criminal justice, to ensure practical support for the operation of the ICC. And we need to underpin our support for the ICC by redoubling our support for the Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals as well as other institutions of criminal justice. We therefore appeal to all states to demonstrate their full co-operation with the tribunals by surrendering indictees, providing full and effective assistance with regard to witnesses, and not least, providing practical assistance in the enforcement of sentences.

Mr. Chairman,

On another level, we need the individual political leadership of the kind that the Swedish Prime Minister has demonstrated in this field.

Political leaders must take seriously the responsibility to protect which is an integral part of the principle of state sovereignty.

We should put more resources, more systematic efforts and more political energy into preventing conflict, containing conflict and ending conflict.

In order to get off the ground, such efforts require political leadership on the part of governments and international organisations.

In order to have an impact on the ground, such efforts should be sustained by our support for civil society actors. They can play an important role in preventing deadly conflicts and genocide.

Finally, we need to improve institutional mechanisms to give the political will a more systematic expression – such as by supporting the proposals that the UN Secretary General launched yesterday.

Thank you.