US: The US has completed its repudiation of the new international war crimes court by notifying the UN it is withdrawing its signature from a treaty it had already indicated it would not ratify.
The UN was told the US now considered itself "no longer bound in any way to its purpose and objective", the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, said yesterday on ABC's This Week.
The International Criminal Court, whose ratification by 66 countries to date, including Ireland, will allow it to start work next year, replaces the ad hoc system of courts established by the UN for dealing with specific wars such as that in The Hague for the former Yugoslavia and in Tanzania for Rwanda.
The widely expected formal announcement of the "unsigning" was made by Under Secretary of State, Mr Marc Grossman, in Washington and in a briefing for foreign journalists by Mr Pierre-Richard Prosper, the State Department's ambassador for war crimes issues.
Mr Prosper said the US was concerned that the treaty could be used for frivolous prosecution of its own military or citizens. Critics of the US point out, however, that it provides that the international court can only act if a national's own country fails to investigate allegations or prosecute those against whom bona fide charges or war crimes are laid.
Congressional opposition to the court is strong, with two Bills already in the pipeline requirng the US to use all means necessary to free any US citizen charged before it and mandating the US not to co-operate with it.
The US was also expected to repudiate the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, a 1969 pact that outlines the obligations of nations to obey other international treaties.
Article 18 of the Vienna Convention requires signatory nations to refrain from taking steps to undermine treaties they sign, even if they do not ratify them. As with the treaty for the International Criminal Court, the US signed but did not ratify the Vienna agreement.
Some of the criticism of the US over the court arises from the fact that US diplomats successfully watered down the text during talks leading to its adoption, and then walked away from it.
Senator Russ Feingold (Dem, Wisconsin) a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticised the renunciation. "Beyond the extremely problematic matter of casting doubt on the US commitment to international justice and accountability, these steps actually call into question our country's credibility in all multilateral endeavors," he said.