Clause 5 - Proceedings for a delivery order
International Criminal Court Bill [Lords]
4:15 pm
Mr Edward Garnier (Harborough, Conservative)
I shall be brief because I expect that we will be called downstairs before long. I am grateful for the Solicitor-General's reassurances. He will be the first to agree that those important rights need to be proclaimed, no matter how keen we all are that war criminals are brought to justice.
We are working under not only time constraints, but procedural constraints, because we are dealing with a statute that we cannot amend. I find that hugely and increasingly frustrating. We are currently discussing clause 2; I doubt that we will ever get on to schedule 3, or even schedules 1 and 2, which deal with the manner in which procedures are imported into our system. The Solicitor-General rightly mentioned article 55, but that is hidden away in schedule 3 on page 54 of a lengthy piece of legislation.
I am worried that we might push through an important Bill too quickly. People might say, ``So what? We all want to see an ICC—end of story.'' The Government are entitled, with their majority, to get their business through. I think, however, that we should be careful and, from time to time, think a little more deeply about what we are doing in this Room. I hope that we will not lose sight of that. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 5 ordered to stand part of the Bill.