STATEMENT BY MR NATHANIEL KHNG, COUNSELLOR (LEGAL), PERMANENT MISSION OF SINGAPORE TO THE UNITED NATIONS, ON AGENDA ITEM 81, ON CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, SIXTH COMMITTEE, 14 OCTOBER 2020

Madam Chair,

1 Singapore reiterates its appreciation to the International Law Commission for its work on this important topic. Crimes against humanity are among the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. It is imperative that the international community works together to end impunity for perpetrators and provide justice for victims. In this regard, the Commission’s draft articles and commentaries can contribute to the strengthening of accountability by providing useful practical guidance to States on this topic.

Madam Chair,

2 Singapore was amongst those delegations that submitted written comments to the Commission on this topic. Like others, we considered the draft articles very carefully, and made some suggestions on how they could be clarified or improved. We greatly appreciate the Commission’s efforts to engage Member States. We do, however, remain of the view that the draft articles could be improved or clarified in the manner proposed in our written comments. To cite one example, Singapore had commented that draft article 7, paragraph 2, is intended to provide an additional treaty-based jurisdiction in respect of an alleged offender on the basis of presence alone when none of the other connecting factors are present. In other words, our understanding is that draft article 7, paragraph 2 only permits States to establish jurisdiction over crimes committed by a national of a State party and does not extend to establishing jurisdiction over nationals of non-States parties. We remain of the view that this should be expressly reflected in the text of this draft article. We invite delegations to refer to the other parts of Singapore’s written comments, which are available on the Commission’s website.

3 We have also read with interest the numerous written submissions by others, many of which contain very detailed comments. These submissions contain many valuable ideas, but also demonstrate that there remains some divergence in views. In this regard, my delegation looks forward to continuing discussions with other delegations on these important matters as well as on the recommendation of the Commission contained in paragraph 42 of its report on the work of its seventy-first session.

4 Thank you for your attention.

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