November 9, 2022
Thank you, Madam President.
Mexico thanks the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, and his team for the presentation of his twenty-fourth report on the situation in Libya. We have noted that the Prosecutor has made his presentation from Tripoli, which indeed suggests improved cooperation with local authorities. We welcome our colleague, the Permanent Representative of Libya to this meeting.
We also recognize the progress made in the four lines of investigation outlined in the roadmap presented to this Council in April 2022. We emphasize that the continued presence of the Office of the Prosecutor has allowed the acceleration of evidence collection, which has a positive impact on investigations, as well as on the relationship and collaboration with victims and civil society.
Mexico shares the conviction of placing the victims at the center of the work of the Prosecutor’s Office and reiterates, in particular, the importance of offering them attention and psychosocial support.
Cooperation between the Office of the Prosecutor and national authorities is essential, in accordance with the principle of complementarity. We echo the Prosecutor’s call to maintain it at the highest level with the Libyan authorities. We note the results of the visits of the Deputy Prosecutor and Prosecutor Khan, and hope that these exchanges will continue in the future.
We also highlight the active cooperation with third countries, as well as with Europol, which has already achieved some results in the line of investigation related to crimes against migrants. In this context, we highlight the arrest and extradition of two individuals accused of human trafficking in Libya, who were arrested in Ethiopia and extradited to Italy and the Netherlands, respectively. Mexico considers it a positive development that the Office of the Prosecutor has become a member of the Joint Investigation Team for this type of crimes.
Regarding jurisdictional activities, we note the conclusion of proceedings in the cases of Khaled and Al-Werfalli, following the confirmation of their deaths. We underline the importance of ensuring compliance of arrest warrants to avoid cases remaining inconclusive, and hope that further warrants will soon be issued in light of the progress of investigations.
Madam President,
Mexico welcomes the allocation of increased resources for the team in charge of investigating the situation in Libya and stresses the importance of addressing the budgetary needs of the International Criminal Court.
We therefore stress once again the importance of the UN fully assuming the costs of the situations referred to the Court by the Security Council.
Finally, as this is the last occasion on which Mexico will address a report of the ICC Prosecutor in our current membership of this Council, we reiterate our conviction about the potential that the referral of situations to the International Criminal Court has to close impunity gaps.
This tool, provided for in the Rome Statute, makes the road to accountability a reality for the victims of the most heinous crimes, and we will continue to support this mechanism whenever necessary, inside or outside the Security Council.
Thank you very much.