A leading Vatican diplomat said that the Holy See welcomes the progress that is being made toward an international treaty on crimes against humanity.
Addressing a UN committee meeting, Archbishop Christophe-Zakhia El-Kassis, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, offered four caveats:
- “The Holy See supports retaining the definition of gender set out in Article 7(3) of the Rome Statute, which refers to the two sexes, male and female, in the context of society, as well as the established definition of forced pregnancy.”
- “No person should be extradited or surrendered to a jurisdiction where there are substantial grounds for believing that he or she would be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, or to the death penalty.”
- The treaty should “recognize the right of victims to compensation and to assistance with rehabilitation and reintegration.”
- “Justice must respect the dignity of the accused.”
“Due process, the presumption of innocence, the impartiality of judges, the effective rights of the defense and the reasonable duration of proceedings are not concessions to perpetrators, but conditions of the law’s legitimacy,” the prelate explained. “Penalties should be proportionate and open to reconciliation because persons can never be reduced to the crimes they have committed.”