UN / ICC LIBYA

STORY: UN / ICC LIBYA
TRT: 3:40
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS

DATELINE: 11 MAY 2023, NEW YORK CITY / RECENT

SHOTLIST:

RECENT – NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters

11 MAY 2023, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court:
“Warrants are not an end in themselves, but they are an important step in the rights of victims and survivors that their lives matter to you. Their lives matter to us and what many of them have suffered. The allegations that they raised that we believe to be supported by evidence, need to be assessed by independent and impartial judges, if we're not to give the lie to the promise of Nuremberg, the promise in which all permanent members of the Council joined with one voice that they should be never again a time in which human rights are trampled so egregious in different parts of the world.”
4. Med shot, Libya’s Permanent Representative
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court:
“The warrants are of course a first step. How do we deliver evermore? I think partnerships are absolutely key, and the realization that it doesn't matter at all which flag is behind the judge or behind the prosecutor. We need to work more closely with the independent judicial authorities of Member States of the United Nations. State parties among State parties alike, everybody has a stake in justice. And I think when we can share evidence with national authorities in the way that we have over the six-month period, it is a sign of hope.
6. Med shot, Council members
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court:
“If we feel that we can be more imaginative and build partnerships together, I think this referral, which has seen such progress over the last six months, can go deeper, which will be a debt of thanks that we received that we may finally deserve and maybe most importantly, we can look at victims, like the victims I've seen in Tarhouna and other places in Libya and not feel ashamed, but feel finally, we're doing our best to deliver on their right to justice and accountability.”
8. Close up, Security Council president
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Taher M. T. Elsonni, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Libya:
Administration of justice on Libya territories is a sovereign prerogative and is a national court and judicial jurisdiction and the Libyan judiciary is committed to conduct a fair and impartial trial. And we reiterated our cooperation with the ICC according to its jurisdiction and mandate is according to the principle of complementarity and this does not mean in any that the OCC is an alternative to the Libyan judiciary.”
10. Med shot, Libya’s Permanent Representative
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Taher M. T. Elsonni, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Libya:
“The political situation, the current division of the international community and the division within the Security Council cannot be separated from what is currently going on, including crimes and the atrocities that we hear about. Thus, this is a common responsibility. Remember, Libyans are tired of blaming us alone, as if there is no moral or international responsibility because of the myriad of international interventions in my country since 2011.”
12. Wide shot, Security Council

STORYLINE:

Confirming that the International Criminal Court has issued 4 warrants related to the prosecution of crimes in Libya and submitted requests for two more, prosecutor Karim Khan told the Security Council, “Warrants are not an end in themselves, but they are an important step in the rights of victims and survivors that their lives matter to you.”

Briefing the Council on Thursday (11 May), Khan added, “Their lives matter to us and what many of them have suffered. The allegations that they raised that we believe to be supported by evidence, need to be assessed by independent and impartial judges, if we're not to give the lie to the promise of Nuremberg, the promise in which all permanent members of the Council joined with one voice that they should be never again a time in which human rights are trampled so egregious in different parts of the world.”
The ICC Prosecutor said that “the warrants are of course a first step”, and asked, “How do we deliver evermore?”

“I think partnerships are absolutely key, and the realization that it doesn't matter at all which flag is behind the judge or behind the prosecutor. We need to work more closely with the independent judicial authorities of Member States of the United Nations. State parties among State parties alike, everybody has a stake in justice. And I think when we can share evidence with national authorities in the way that we have over the six-month period, it is a sign of hope,” said the Prosecutor.

Khan added, “If we feel that we can be more imaginative and build partnerships together, I think this referral, which has seen such progress over the last six months, can go deeper, which will be a debt of thanks that we received that we may finally deserve and maybe most importantly, we can look at victims, like the victims I've seen in Tarhouna and other places in Libya and not feel ashamed, but feel finally, we're doing our best to deliver on their right to justice and accountability.”

Libya’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Taher M. T. Elsonni, said that “administration of justice on Libya territories is a sovereign prerogative” and “the Libyan judiciary is committed to conduct a fair and impartial trial.”

According to Elsonni, Libyan authorities reiterate that their “cooperation with the ICC according to its jurisdiction and mandate is according to the principle of complementarity and this does not mean in any that the OCC is an alternative to the Libyan judiciary.”

The Permanent representative also said that “the political situation, the current division of the international community and the division within the Security Council cannot be separated from what is currently going on, including crimes and the atrocities that we hear about.”

Elsonni added, “Remember, Libyans are tired of blaming us alone, as if there is no moral or international responsibility because of the myriad of international interventions in my country since 2011.”