Latvian Presidency of the EU Council meets with ICC

On 3 February 2015 in The Hague, the Latvian Presidency Chairs of the EU Council International Public Law working group (COJUR) and its subgroup on ICC (COJUR-ICC) met with officials from the International Criminal Court (ICC) - the President of the ICC, Judge Sang-Hyun Song, Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, Registrar Herman von Hebel - and Executive Director of the Trust Fund for Victims.

The officials of the ICC and the Trust Fund for Victims expressed their appreciation for the long-term support provided by the EU and Latvia in particular, namely, for Latvia’s active participation in the Assembly of States Parties meeting in New York in December 2014, Latvia’s recommendations made to Kenya on cooperation with the ICC during the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva in January 2015 as well as Latvia’s financial contribution to the Trust Fund and the outstanding work of Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga i, ex-president of Latvia, on the Board of Directors of the Trust Fund for Victims.

Latvian officials outlined the priorities of the Latvian Presidency in COJUR and COJUR-ICC, and all parties agreed on close cooperation during the presidency period, including in relation to the seminar co-organized by the Embassy of Latvia in The Hague and the Trust Fund for Victims to be held in the Hague on 16 March 2015, where the keynote speech will be given by Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga.

The ICC is the first permanent international criminal court, established by the Rome Statute that entered into force on 1 July 2002. The ICC has been established to prosecute the most serious crimes, namely, genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed after 1 July 2002. The ICC is an independent international organization located in The Hague, the Netherlands. It has 122 member states. Latvia is a member of the ICC as from 1 September 2002.