Mr. Prime minister, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

Allow me first to thank you, the Swedish government and Stockholm International Forum to organise this conference on genocide, which is not a new issue on the agenda of the international community. In spite of high level of achievements of our civilisation, as we are often proud of, we still today, in a 21st century see serious crimes and crimes against humanity. One of them is genocide, a crime against a national, ethnic, racial, religious, social or political group.We have to be frank in this regard: genocide is not a matter of distant past or decades ago, but a matter of present time, since we know tragic events, which happened not a while ago, in the 90-ies in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Rwanda.

There are several international documents on prevention of genocide existing, almost in all the countries the genocide is prescribed as criminal act, mostly prescribing inapplicability of the statute of limitations for criminal offence of Genocide (and also of War Crimes), which includes prevention of application of the statute of limitations for the criminal prosecution of this criminal offence as well as the execution of the punishment for it.

Adopting an international conventions and even applying them is not enough.

The international community reacted on acts of genocide in Rwanda and former Yugoslavi a by establishing of ad hoc international tribunals for that purpose. These two tribunals proved to be efficient since several perpetrators were already convicted. It became clear that serious acts against humanity are not only the matter of individual state, but the matter of international community as well.

The establishment of the International Criminal Court is a giant step forward toward a better world and eradication of phenomena such as Holocaust, genocide and crimes against humanity. Establishment of the ICC is historical event, but only a first step. My country, Slovenia supports all efforts to make the court fully operational as soon as possible.We have already ratified the Statute of the International Criminal Court in November 2001, and enacted the Cooperation between the Republic of Slovenia and the International Criminal Court Act in November 2002. This is a firm legal basis for cooperation without reservations with the Court in investigation and prosecution of criminal offences within the jurisdiction of the Court.

We firmly believe that first judgements of the court will have tremendous deterrent effect to the tyrants and criminals and that will improve situation regarding human rights globally. For this reason, it is not only only task, but our duty to promote the court and strive for universal ratification of the Rome statute. Slovenia will, as a future member of the European Union, give its contribution.

The proper prevention and instruments for early warning should be constantly promoted and developed.

In this regard, I have to underline the essential role we attach to educational campaigns in the public, especially among younger generation. “Nunca mas” is a message we need to pass to the future leaders and opinion makers in our and societies all around the world. The governments, international organisations and NGO’s have to be sensible for any threats of genocide. This we can see also as one of the most important ways of future fight against genocide and other serious crimes against humanity.

Thank you.