Hosts: Argentina, Belgium, Netherlands and Slovenia
Short title: Towards a new mutual legal assistance and extradition treaty on atrocity crimes
Languages: English, French
Where: room 1
Description:
It is the solemn responsibility of all States to comply with their international obligations to end impunity for crimes of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. This responsibility notably includes thorough investigation and prosecution at the domestic level of persons responsible for such atrocity crimes. Suspects, witnesses, evidence or assets relating to these crimes are quite often not located on the territory of a single State. This means that States will have to cooperate practically and judicially with one another in order to be truly effective in the fight against impunity for atrocity crimes, in full compliance with their international obligations. Effective cooperation among States is the only way to avoid the creation of safe havens for perpetrators of mass atrocities. However, the appropriate international legal framework for mutual legal assistance and extradition for these atrocity crimes is currently lacking.
The aim of the side event would be to provide information about the latest developments with regard to the initiative for a Multilateral Treaty for Mutual Legal Assistance and Extradition in the Domestic Prosecution of Atrocity Crimes, and to seek further support for this initiative.