WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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Crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes

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are the most serious crimes that concern the international community as a whole.

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It is commonly understood that states have a responsibility to ensure there is no impunity for these crimes.

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This means that the national authorities must conduct thorough investigations and prosecute the perpetrators.

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The aim is not only to effectively punish these violations of international law, but also to avoid any recurrence of these heinous atrocities.

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Addressing crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes often involves investigations that cross international borders.

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Suspects may have found safe haven in a foreign country, witnesses may have fled

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and been granted refugee status far away from home, and evidence may be scattered all over the world.

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If a state decides to investigate or prosecute one of these crimes, it is almost inevitable that it will have to cooperate with one or more other states.

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In practice, however, such inter-state cooperation is not always simple, straightforward or even possible.

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For instance, requests from one state to another to extradite suspects, hear witnesses or freeze assets

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often get bogged down in delays or may even remain unanswered.

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Such difficulties can be detrimental to the investigations and prosecutions carried out by the national authorities

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in the requesting state. This problem can be solved by establishing a new multilateral

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treaty that provides a modern and uniform framework to facilitate and improve cooperation

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between national authorities in investigating and prosecuting the most serious international crimes.

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This instrument would among other things designate direct channels of communication

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with the competent authorities, clarify which forms of inter-state cooperation are available

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and how to request them, and facilitate forms of cooperation involving modern technologies,

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such as the hearing of witnesses via videoconferencing or requests for wiretapping suspects.

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Argentina, Belgium, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Senegal and Slovenia are asking for your support in

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this initiative to establish a new multilateral treaty to fight impunity and ensure that national authorities

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can effectively prosecute and investigate international crimes.