Interactive Dialogue under Item 10 :

Interactive Dialogue Item 10: Impunity in Mali during ID with IE on Mali

19 March 2019

Oral Statement by: International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Dscrimination (EAFORD) and Geneva International Centre for Justice (GICJ)

Mr. President,

EAFORD and Geneva International Centre for Justice would like to thank the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Mali for his report.

We are deeply concerned about the lack of implementation of the Agreement of Peace and Reconciliation in Mali. The fight against impunity is central to achieve reconciliation and an indispensable prerequisite for increasing trust in state action. The precondition for effectively holding perpetrators accountable is legislation prohibiting all serious human rights violations.

Therefore, we support the Independent Expert in urging Mali to enact a law which incriminates all gender-based violence including: Female Genital Mutilation. Where there is no national legislation incriminating the harmful practice, all efforts towards banning FGM will remain rather futile.

Further, we appreciate the ongoing and past proceedings before the International Criminal Court. However, cooperation with the national judiciary is crucial to achieve a gapless fight against impunity. To that end, we perceive that the creation of an independent and effective national criminal justice system together with an effective anticorruption institution is a precondition for ending impunity.

Otherwise, the victims’ trust in the justice system, and the state as a whole, will continue to shrink while peace and reconciliation will recede even further into distance.

The creation of an independent and effective justice system must be a priority, both in government policy and financially. EAFORD and GICJ call upon all states to

• Firstly, support Mali in the protection of the civilian population;

• and secondly, contribute to the fight against impunity by not only providing financial resources but also helping to build capacity for the creation of an independent and effective criminal justice system.

Merci M. le Président.