This year, the IHRA is presided over by Croatia. At the Plenary, the head of the Slovenian delegation, Marko Rakovec, outlined the process of preparation, negotiation and the consensus reached at the recent diplomatic conference in Ljubljana on a new treaty, the Ljubljana-Hague Convention on International Cooperation in the Investigation and Prosecution of the Crime of Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes and Other International Crimes.

Delegates from Argentina and the Netherlands that are part of the core group for drafting the Ljubljana-Hague Convention added their views on this historical achievement for international cooperation in the investigation and prosecution of the crime of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and other international crimes. The treaty was referred to as the most important treaty since the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which was received with great interest by the delegations.

Mr Rakovec called on the IHRA delegations to urge their respective countries to sign and ratify the Ljubljana-Hague Convention, which will enter into force after the signing ceremony in The Hague in early 2024 and after ratifications by three countries as envisaged in the Convention's provisions for its entry into force. We would like to see as many countries as possible accede to the Convention, thus making significant progress on the prevention of mass atrocities, which is a foreign policy priority for Slovenia.