Foreign Affairs Minister Hadja Lahbib signed the Ljubljana-The Hague Convention on behalf of Belgium on Wednesday.
The treaty will "strengthen international cooperation in the investigation and prosecution of the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other international crimes."
"Given the very nature of these crimes, suspects, evidence and witnesses are rarely found within the borders of a single state,” explains the Minister’s office. “For these crimes to be truly effectively investigated and prosecuted, legal cooperation between the countries involved is necessary for fighting impunity."
"This convention embodies this ambition amongst the signatory countries, providing a modern and effective legal framework to facilitate judicial assistance and extradition of those prosecuted," it adds.
This marks the culmination of a decade’s work for Belgium, who launched this convention project in 2011 with Slovenia and the Netherlands. They were later joined by Argentina, Senegal, and Mongolia. Belgium will host this convention.
Until now, there was no legal framework for international cooperation on atrocity crimes such as genocide and other crimes against humanity, unlike in cases of corruption or organised cross-border crime.
The treaty complements the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague.
