News item | 14-02-2024 | 6:30 PM
On Wednesday, February 14, 2024, 32 states signed the Treaty of Ljubljana – The Hague at the Peace Palace in The Hague. Signed on behalf of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, State Secretary for Justice and Security Eric van der Burg. The international treaty contains agreements on legal cooperation in the investigation, prosecution and adjudication of international crimes, such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. This treaty facilitates cooperation between states, so that impunity for serious crimes can be combated more effectively
Without this new treaty, it was often complicated to bring suspects of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes before a national court. In these types of crimes, the suspects, victims and evidence are often spread across different countries. International cooperation is desperately needed to bring these cases before a national court. The current legal framework for this is incomplete and partly outdated, which hinders states from cooperating effectively in the fight against impunity.
To change this, the Netherlands, together with Argentina, Belgium, Mongolia, Senegal and Slovenia – ‘the leading group’ – took the initiative for the establishment of this treaty in 2011. The Netherlands has always played a pioneering role in this. After years of preparations and negotiations, almost 70 states finally reached agreement on the text of the new treaty in Ljubljana in May 2023. All states can become parties to this treaty and thereby join a modern and uniform framework for international cooperation in the areas of mutual legal assistance, extradition and the execution of sentences.
The treaty contains provisions on Joint Investigation Teams, digital information exchange, videoconferencing and various special investigative techniques. In addition, the treaty also entails obligations to make relevant international crimes punishable under national law and to actually prosecute them. The treaty will therefore not only be important for facilitating cooperation between states, but it will also help prevent the perpetrators of these crimes from finding safe havens. The establishment of this treaty is therefore a milestone in the international fight against impunity for the most serious crimes and an important step towards justice for the victims of these crimes. The fact that dozens of states from different regions of the world have signed this treaty in the Peace Palace is also an important result of the Dutch commitment to promoting the development of the international legal order.
From February 19, the treaty will be open for signature in Brussels for another year and the number of signatures is expected to increase significantly in the near future. The treaty will enter into force after the first three states have ratified the treaty. In order to make this treaty the most effective instrument possible, it is very important that as many states as possible ultimately become parties, and in the coming years the Netherlands will therefore work to ensure that this treaty applies worldwide.