Kathmandu, August 26 :

An international delegation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) campaign met Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today who assured the team that the government was positive about ratifying the ICC Rome Statute.

“Koirala informed us that the government will ratify the Rome Statute and that he intended to bring the Maoists to the mainstream,” Dr Ahmed Ziauddin, member of the team, told this daily.

The team met deputy prime minister KP Oli and CPN-UML leader Madhav Nepal yesterday, according to the Informal Sector Service Centre. Oli also assured the team that the Rome Statute would be ratified once the Bill on Military Act tabled at the Parliament was amended.

Cases of genocide and grave human rights violations can be tried at the International Criminal Court once Nepal is a signatory to the Statute. The delegation team on ICC campaign is here to lobby with the government regarding the ratification of the ICC Rome Statute. “It is important for Nepal to become a party to the ICC Rome Statute

so that the international mechanism will help the country put the necessary laws in place and reinforce the judiciary,” said Ziauddin, adding it will also help Nepal deal with human rights issues.

Speaker Subas Nembang said that the “House of Representatives shall spare no time in immediate ratification of the ICC Rome Statute once it is tabled in the Parliament.”

The need of the hour is for the government to “bring forth” the ICC Rome Statute for ratification to the HoR, he said at a programme titled ‘Ending impunity: a revival of the ICC campaign in Nepal.’ The programme was organised by the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) and INSEC here today.

Subodh Pyakurel, chairman of INSEC, said the Rome Statute is yet to be tabled at the Parliament although the HoR has already passed a resolution directing the government to ratify the Statute. He pointed out the need for the civil society to campaign for the ratification of the Statute.