The Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) is organizing on Thursday, together with the Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Ministry of the Kingdom of Spain and the International Association of Penal Law, the conference titled “Towards an International Court against Terrorism?,” a release of the ministry informs.
The event aims to further encourage the reflection process on the Romanian-Spanish initiative regarding the possibility to establish a new international criminal court to punish terrorism, in the context of a larger debate on a global level in respect to capitalizing the instruments offered by the international law in fighting this phenomenon, the MAE mentions.
According to the quoted source, the discussions will tackle aspects that are relevant for the mentioned initiative, among others, will review the international legal framework, the arguments for establishing the international court against terrorism, as well as the jurisdictional issues connected to the establishment of such institution.
The conference will be attended by representatives of the academic environment, with a lot of experience in the area, members of the local diplomatic community and governmental experts. The event will contribute to the shaping of the most suitable approaches on an international level, for making the fight against this phenomenon more efficient, regardless of its manifestation, the quoted source reveals.
At the beginning of 2015, Romania launched a reflection process regarding the possibility of establishing a new international criminal court against terrorism. Spain joint the initiative, attending the mutual demarches for promoting it on a bilateral and multi-lateral level, and the Netherlands offered technical support.
The added value of this proposal is represented by the substantiation of the counter-terrorism fight, on the dimension of observing the international law and fighting impunity, thus contributing to the strengthening of the rule of law on a global scale. The use of international criminal law would have a dissuasive and a substitution effect, if needed, regarding the national authorities’ role, when these don’t have the capacity or won’t investigate or trial acts of terrorism, the quoted source mentions.
The initiative raised the interest among the international community, which expressed appreciation for its main objective: the fight against terrorism using instruments based on the rule of law and on the international criminal law.
Taking into account the complexity of the theme, Romania and Spain proposed to further continue these debates in order to gather more points of view, that would serve as a better foundation for the project, including through stimulating the dialogue with the academic environment and with the civil society.
