16 Apr 2013

Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Mr Ramadeluka Seretse says Botswana is honoured to have a Motswana in the International Criminal Court (ICC) bench.

Speaking at a reception hosted in honour of delegates to the workshop on the ratification of the Kampala Amendments to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Minister Seretse said Justice Sanji Monageng, who is the ICC vice president, made Botswana proud.

“You are the first vice president of the ICC and we are honored to have produced a person of your credentials,” he said. He said Botswana was honored to be associated with countries with great minds in influencing the international community towards achieving desirable levels of human dignity and peace.

Minister Seretse thanked the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression for the role they played in bringing sanity to the world and he reiterated Botswana’s commitment to the noble role the ICC was playing.

He said countries should have a commitment to ensure that there was avoidance of aggression against human life, adding that there was hope that countries shall ultimately achieve unanimity in principles and implement thereof.

Meanwhile, United Nations secretary general, Mr Ban Ki-moon said in his message that the United Nations had consistently been a strong supporter of the efforts to promote accountability and the rule of law.

Mr Ki-moon said over the past few years, the UN secretary general had promoted the idea that this was the ‘age of accountability.’

He said the idea was to build on the growing consensus among member states that each state had a reciprocal responsibility to end impunity by holding perpetrators of egregious crimes to account. The secretary general's message stated that governments must promote accountability within their own countries as a responsibility of sovereign states. ENDS