As our Opinio Juris colleague Kevin Jon Heller has pointed out, with the addition of Suriname last year and Chile this week, "every country in South America is now a a member of the ICC -- a significant accomplishment." And as our commenter Deborah points out below, the accession of Cook Islands was "a veryThe 107th state party to the Statute of the International Criminal Court is Surinamand the 108th is Cook Islands. Each took the step by way of treaty accession nearly a year ago, on July 15 and 18, respectively.

2 comments:
No Girrls! Suriname was not the 108State to join the Rome Statute, it was the 107th, depositing on 15 July 2008. The 109th State Party are the Cook Islands that deposited their instrument of accession on 18 July 2008. The Cook Islands are the single non-UN member that are State Party to the Rome Statute.
The accession of the Cook Islands is a very important step to redress the under-representation of Asia and the Pacific in the ICC system. The story of that accession can be linked to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cook Island and also Co-Chair of the EU-ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) Parliamentary Assembly (JAP ACP-EU), Hon. Wilkie Rasmussen. The JAP ACP-EU is the parliamentary organ of the trade and cooperation mechanism established by the Cotonou Agreement. The Cook Islands ratified in line with Article 11 of the revised Cotonou Agreement that unprecedently mainstreams the fight against impunity in a binding development mechanism (to which by the way Sudan just withdrew a few days ago, precisely because it provides for the goal of ratification and implementation of the Rome Statute).
Thanks, Deborah -- missed Cook Islands in the small print. We've corrected the puzzler thanks to you! Diane
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