DECLARATION

DECLARATION DECLARATION On the Ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court by the Parliaments of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania The Baltic Assembly, mindful that during the past century the humanity was shocked by atrocities, to which millions of people–children, women and men–fell victim, affirming that crimes against humanity, incl. genocide and war and aggression crimes, must not go unpunished and that their effective prosecution can be ensured by taking measures at the national level and by international cooperation, emphasising that such grave crimes threaten the peace, security and well-being of the world, recalling that it is the duty of every State to exercise its criminal jurisdiction over those responsible for international crimes, noting that the International Criminal Court, established on July 17, 1998, under the Rome Statute, signed also by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, is only complementary to national criminal jurisdictions, considering that the Riigikogu of Estonia ratified, on December 5, 2001, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, calls on the Parliaments of Latvia and Lithuania to ratify as soon as possible the said Statute. Tallinn, December 15, 2001