Appeal to the English speaking Greek population for testimonies

Don’t miss the comment on the end of the article

Sarah Luzia Hassel -Reusing in front of the International Criminal Court (ICC)

(For the german version please scroll down) 

Dear ladies and gentlmen,

at the 21.11.2012, I have filed at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague a charge against unknown for the suspicion of a crime against humanity because of intentious and, at the same time, systematic and broad-scale damage to the health of the Greek population (art.7 par. 1 lit. k Roman Statute).

Everyone has the human right to the, for the respective person, highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (art. 12 UN Social Pact). In addition to that, the human right to health is protected for women by art. 12 of the UN women’s rights convention (CEDAW) and for children by art. 24 UN childrens rights convention (CRC). Furthermore, children have to be protected, according to art. 19 CRC, against damages. As a result, the human right to health needs to be less affected by austerity measures than any other social human right.

I have directed consciously directed the charge against unknown, because so many persons (among them the Troika consisting of EU Commission, IMF, and ECB, the Eurogroup Working Group of the fincancial undersecretaries, the financial ministers superior to them, and many external counsellors and lobbyists) are involved in the drafts and in the decisions on the conditions in connection with the loans of „Greece Support“ and EFSF, that presumably only the files of the coming into existence of the conditions and testimonies will bring clearness, which concrete persons are responsible for those conditions, which have led to the damage of so many inhabitants and citizens of Greece.

The guilty persons must be detected and be held accountable, and the damaging of the health of the Greeks by the austerity measures must be stopped.

I have, in my charge , shown connections between the conditions and their results to the hunger and to the damaging of the health system at Greece, partly by referring to evidence, which had already been filed by Mr. Georgios Tragkas and his colleagues.

According the pieces of information available to me, the damages to the health have been caused especially by the cuts in the health sector and by the causing of hunger, but also by the causing of homelessness and by lacking financial means for the heating of appartments.

The evidence filed up to now are all on an abstract level. What especially is missing yet, are testimonies of concrete inhabitants of Greece, whose health has been damaged by the austerity measures. Also testimonies of friends and relatives of Greek people, who have died because of health damages caused by the austerity measures, or who committed suicide because of the effects of the austerity measures, are important.

The thing is, to show to the ICC not only abstract number, articles, and statistics, but also the human perspective. The point is, that not only journalists and human rights activists, but especially as many victims as possible themselves testify and so actively engage for justice and for the punishing of the perpetrators.

And for this purpose of giving evidence, I need your support in the way, that you send your testimony to the ICC at The Hague in English language and referring to the file number OTP-CR-345/12.

According to art. 15 Roman Statute, everyone can send evidential pieces of information regarding presumable cases of crimes according to the Roman Statute..

The address for sending evidence is, according to the website of the International Criminal Court:

International Criminal Court
Information and Evidence Unit
Office of the Prosecutor
Post Office Box 19519
2500 CM The Hague
The Netherlands
or sent by facsimile to +31 70 515 8555.

The point at issue is the damaging of the health by concrete austerity measures. Please explain, since which time your health has been damaged by which measure.

This can refer to medicaments or to health services of physicians, which are not available any more or only with unaffordable co-payments or self-payments, or not any more close enough to the place where you live.

If you are starving, the point for your testimony is, since when and because of which cuts (e. g. of your pension or of your wage) you have not had any more enough means for your sufficient nutrition. Also if the loosening of the protection against unjustified dismissal or the rise of specific costs of living are the cause, your testimony is important.
Please also testify, if you are not undernourished only because you are supported by a charitable organization.
If you have become homeless, or if you have to live in an unheated appartment because of a lack of financial means, please also explain, since when because of which cuts you have not been able any more to afford the necessary means.

If possible, please attach to your letter to the ICC also fotocopies of pieces of evidence, which show, that with the financial means available to you, the necessary costs for food, appartment, or health cound not be paid any more.

If you have pieces of evidence, since when the persons, who have drafted or decided on the conditions for Greece, must have known, what they cause to the health of the citizens and of the inhabitants of Greece with these conditions, please inform the ICC and also me about these pieces of evidence. Because a crime against humanity (art. 7 Roman Statute) exists only with a certain degree of intention, that one knows respectively must know, what one causes, but that one nevertheless does it.

Every testimony with evidential pieces of information regarding the damaging of the health of concrete persons by the conditions is an important contribution to the solution. In addition to that, the more evidential testimonies are filed, the more is shown to the ICC, that it is important to the citizens and the inhabitants of Greece, to give a high priority to the detection of the persons responsible for the damaging of the health and to the deterrence against further damages.

With friendly greetings,

Sarah Luzia Hassel-Reusing

Thorner Str. 7
42283 Wuppertal (Germany)
+49/202/2502621
human rights activist

link to the address of the ICC for the filing of testimonies and pieces of evidence according to art. 15 Roman Statute  http://www.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/icc/about

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Here is the german version:  Aufruf an die griechische Öffentlichkeit im deutschsprachigen Raum 

related post:  Deutsch Bürger-und Menschenrechte-Aktivist appelliert, den Internationalen Strafgerichtshof für Griechenland.

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source: http://unser-politikblog.blogspot.gr   (please visit)

Sarah Luzia Hassel-Reusing | Facebook

Comment: 

Please note that until now there are more than 4 notifications to the ICC and a petition to the prosecutor, asking him/her to start the investigations. Here you can read the other notifications and here you can read and sign the petition (For its background click on the title). 

Please also note that all the appeals, all evidence and all existing information related to crimes committed in Greece must be examined together because they are part of the same case.

MORE INFORMATION: 

The International Criminal Court (commonly referred to as the ICC or ICCt) is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression (although jurisdiction for the crime of aggression will not be awakened until 2017 at the earliest).

The ICC was created by the Rome Statute  which came into force on 1 July 2002. The Court has established itself in The Hague, Netherlands, but its proceedings may take place anywhere. It is intended to complement existing national judicial systems, and may only exercise its jurisdiction only when national courts are unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute such crimes.

About the crimes:

The crime of genocide is unique because the crime must be committed with ‘intent to destroy’. Crimes against humanity are specifically listed prohibited acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population. 

For the purpose of the Rome Statute, 

– “crime against humanity” (article 7) means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:

(a) Murder;

(b) Extermination;

(c) Enslavement;

(d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population;

(e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;

(f) Torture;

(g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;

(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;

(i) Enforced disappearance of persons;

(j) The crime of apartheid;

(k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health;

– “genocide”  (Article 6) means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a)  Killing members of the group; 

(b)  Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; 

(c)  Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; 

(d)  Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; 

(e)  Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. 

The crime of genocide is unique because the crime must be committed with ‘intent to destroy’. Crimes against humanity are specifically listed prohibited acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population. 

Office of the Prosecutor

The Office of the Prosecutor is responsible for conducting investigations and prosecutions.It is headed by the Chief Prosecutor, who is assisted by one or more Deputy Prosecutors.The Rome Statute provides that the Office of the Prosecutor shall act independently; as such, no member of the Office may seek or act on instructions from any external source, such as states, international organisations, non-governmental organisations or individuals.

The Prosecutor may open an investigation under three circumstances (art.13,14,15) :

• when a situation is referred to him or her by a state party;
• when a situation is referred to him or her by the United Nations Security Council, acting to address a threat to international peace and security; 
• proprio motu on the basis of information received from other sources, such as individuals or non-governmental organisations if  the Prosecutor concludes that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation, and the Pre-Trial Chamber authorises him or her to open it. 

Reparation for victims

For the first time in the history of humanity, an international court has the power to order an individual to pay reparation to another individual; it is also the first time that an international criminal court has had such power.

Pursuant to article 75, the Court may lay down the principles for reparation for victims, which may include restitution, indemnification and rehabilitation. On this point, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court has benefited from all the work carried out with regard to victims, in particular within the United Nations.

The Court must also enter an order against a convicted person stating the appropriate reparation for the victims or their beneficiaries. This reparation may also take the form of restitution, indemnification or rehabilitation. The Court may order this reparation to be paid through the Trust Fund for Victims, which was set up by the Assembly of States Parties in September 2002.

To be able to apply for reparation, victims have to file a written application with the Registry, which must contain the evidence laid down in Rule 94 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence. The Victims’ Participation and Reparation Section prepared standard forms to make this easier for victims. They may also apply for protective measures for the purposes of confiscating property from the persons prosecuted.

The Victims’ Participation and Reparation Section is responsible for giving all appropriate publicity to these reparation proceedings to enable victims to make their applications. These proceedings take place after the person prosecuted has been declared guilty of the alleged facts.

The Court has the option of granting individual or collective reparation, concerning a whole group of victims or a community, or both. If the Court decides to order collective reparation, it may order that reparation to be made through the Victims’ Fund and the reparation may then also be paid to an inter-governmental, international or national organisation.

ICC – Contact

Communications and claims under art.15 of the Rome Statute may be addressed to:

        Information and Evidence Unit
        Office of the Prosecutor
        Post Office Box 19519
        2500 CM The Hague
        The Netherlands

        or sent by email to otp.informationdesk@icc-cpi.int

        or sent by facsimile to +31 70 515 8555.

For more information go to the official site of the ICC : http://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/default.aspx

Finally, please inform your relatives and friends about this call for testimonies, and please note that you can also send evidence and information related to crimes committed in Greece to this blog ( JusticeForGreece). 

Thank you. 

Christina Salemi