Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

I support all those who seek to impose the discipline of respect for international law in all its forms on states and organisations, as well as individuals. One cannot pick and chose in respect of standards of international law, they must be applied in full. An assurance would be of some value in terms of section 6, which implements Article 8 of the Rome Statute. The language of Article 8 is, if anything, weaker than the totality of the obligations taken on by the signatories of other instruments of international law. In section 6, one should not accept less than the full commitments already pledged through other international instruments.

The intention of Deputy Ó Snodaigh's amendment is to take the UN Charter — the wider canvas — rather than Article 8. That would not be sufficient because international law provides for wider obligations than those he proposes. The question arises of whether, once the Bill is passed, we will have achieved universal jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity and other crimes or if we will have limited the obligations we have previously undertaken. The International Criminal Court Bill 2003 should be used to seek to extend rather than shrink protections and should, therefore, include Article 8 commitments as well as every other commitment that has come into existence, including the UN Charter and the laws to which it gave rise. The question of whether the effect of the legislation is to be generally inclusive or limiting should be clarified by the Government.

See this speech in context