On 17 September 2022, Deputy Director Dr Viviane Dittrich was invited to participate in the 50th anniversary conference “Peace, Security and Justice in Europe and the Mediterranean: How can Europe reinforce the global fight against impunity?” organised by the Siracusa International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights in Siracusa, Italy.
On the panel, chaired by Professor William Schabas, Dr Dittrich joined Ambassador Stephen Rapp, former Ambassador-at-Large, Office of Global Criminal Justice at the US Department of State, Ambassador Yevheniia Filipenko, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations Office in Geneva, and Professor Jan Wouters, Professor of International Law and International Organisations at KU Leuven, to discuss the relationship of peace and justice and prospects for accountability. The panel discussion addressed the crime of aggression, amendments to the Rome Statute on the crime of aggression, the role of the UN Security Council and the Human Rights Council and how issues of war and peace fit into the human rights framework.
In the morning of 17 September, the official anniversary ceremony brought together high-level officials, practitioners and scholars from Italy and beyond to celebrate the Siracusa Institute’s 50th anniversary and Cherif Bassiouni’s legacy. All International Criminal Court (ICC) judges were in Siracusa for the anniversary event. The keynote speech was delivered by Judge Rosario Aitala, Judge at the ICC. In the afternoon, two panel discussions were held, the first panel on “Peace as a prerequisite for justice or its ultimate objective?” and the second panel on “Accountability for human trafficking, sexual and gender-based violence, and environmental crimes in the Mediterranean and beyond”.
©Photo: Siracusa International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights