ICC Assembly Kicks Off Amid African And Western States Division

The ICC faces important challenges in Africa. In October the African Union said that the trials ofKenya's president and vice president, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, should be suspended and that all sitting national leaders should receive immunity before international courts."Tomorrow in the afternoon we will have a special segment that is dedicated to the issue of indictment of heads of State and government and its consequences on peace and stability and reconciliation. This was the wish expressed at the Summit of the African Union," President Of The Assembly Of The State Parties, Tinna Intelmann, told a news conference.

The ICC's annual meeting, the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), will take place from November 20 to 28 yet Intelmann advanced that decisions were unlikely to be made.

"We do not foresee any concrete decisions, as there may be an oral conclusion by the moderator, and also African State Parties have said that they would use this occasion to explain maybe more clearly how they would see the functioning of the Rome statute in the future, and possible modifications to the set of rules that we have, and this of course we would then have to keep discussing," she said.

An African bid to postpone the International Criminal Court trials of Kenya's president and his deputy failed at the United Nations last week, which Kenya called a humiliation for Africa.

Intelmann said there was room for discussion at the ASP.

"The African Union is not a state party, it's a regional organisation, but if members of the regional organisation are in distress collectively, our door is open, we are open for political discussions, the Assembly is a very good place for that, I just want to remind everybody that, really, addressing the Court with political grievances is not a very good idea," she said.

The African Union had requested that the U.N. Security Council defer the cases against Kenyatta and Ruto, for one year to allow them to deal with the aftermath of an attack by al Qaeda-linked Somali militants.

The Kenyan cases have stirred an African backlash against the ICC and sparked claims that theSecurity Council does not take Africa seriously enough.

Western and Latin American council members believe the African concerns should be dealt with at the ICC and at a meeting this month of the Assembly of States Parties, which is made up of the 122 court members.

Intelmann told reporters that the ASP will also debate if the accused should be required to attend trial in person or if other ways such as via video links could be a possibility.

"The Rome statute is clear, article 63 is quite clear, the accused has to be present at all times during the trial, the question now is what exactly presence means, whether it could be via modern means of communication, or in another way. I would really not jump ahead, because it is all a matter of discussion for the state Parties right now," she said.

Additional issues on the agenda include budget and the appointment of new judges.