ICC to work with Bangladesh

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has shown interest to work together with Bangladesh in sensitising young people about its activities.

The visiting Deputy Prosecutor of the Hague-based ICC James K Stewart conveyed the message to Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali when he called on him at his office on Sunday.

The foreign ministry said he appreciated Bangladesh’s engagement with the court and showed interest for further engagements particularly in enlightening youngsters about “what the court does and how it functions”.

ICC has the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

Stewart is visiting Bangladesh at the government’s invitation as part of a public information campaign.

The campaign is all about ICC’s role in prevention of and ensuring justice for mass atrocities such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression, the foreign ministry said.

The foreign minister reiterated Bangladesh’s commitment to promote the “universalisation” of the Rome Statute on the ICC.

He thanked the ICC Deputy Prosecutor for offering to address a group of students at Dhaka University as part of his campaign.

The Deputy Prosecutor briefed the minister about some of the recent initiatives to further strengthen ICC’s mandate and service delivery mechanisms.

They exchanged views on Bangladesh’s possible cooperation in promoting the “Policy Paper on Sexual and Gender Based Crimes” recently launched by the ICC Prosecutor.

He also had a meeting with Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque at his office.