By: Ariela Blätter

Another first was on Monday when Chairman Wenaweser, current UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan kicked off the opening plenary. The Chairman reminded the delegates, that although state parties were here to 'amend' the Rome Statute, it was in fact a solid treaty that already guides the Court and does not need significant change.  This likely referred to his views on two main focuses of the Conference, the first being taking stock of the Court’s progress and the crime of aggression. The process of stocktaking essentially comprises a conversation among delegates and civil society about the Court and international justice, while the crime of aggression, which is technically contained in the Statute, needs text added to become operational.  In conclusion of his remarks, he made a pitch for states to pledge their commitment to giving money, time and/or resources to the ICC.

Most people would agree that allowing a psychopath to handle a loaded gun is an extremely bad idea, but apparently not the government of Sudan. Summoned by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, the Sudanese government refuses to arrest and turn over their Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Ahmed Haroun and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman.

Citizens for Global Solutions is already on the record calling for the Security Council to sponsor a special investigation into the death of Benazir Bhutto.

I guess I was wrong. Apparently UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon did in fact speak earlier this month with Sudanese President Omar Bashir about his government's refusal to hand over two suspected war criminals to the ICC.

Evelyn Leopold reports :