ICAR Foundation calls for the creation of the International Tribunal for the Investigation of Crimes of Communism, a proposal that it considers an act of justice and respect towards the victims of totalitarian regimes, including those of the Romanian regime prior to December 1989.
The signing of this agreement by the Government would be a natural gesture towards the continuation of the actions aiming at moral restitution, after condemning communism in 2006 and after Romania subscribed, in 2010, by the representative, at that time, of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile, to the Declaration on Crimes of Communism in the International Conference on this topic, which was held in Prague.
Since crimes against humanity committed by the Communist regimes do not fall under the jurisdiction of the existing international courts, we call for the creation of a new international court for crimes of communism, located in the EU. Crimes against humanity committed by Communist regimes must be condemned by this court in a similar way as the Nazi crimes were condemned and sentenced by the Nuremberg Tribunal and as the crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia were condemned and sentenced – states Point 4 of the Declaration on Crimes of Communism, signed by all states participating in the Prague conference (24 February 2010).
The Estonian Minister of Justice reiterated this initiative in August, during the conference organised to commemorate 76 years since the signing of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. The agreement for the creation of the International Tribunal for the Investigation of Crimes of Communism has been signed by the Ministers of Justice of 8 states: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Georgia.
“The creation of the International Tribunal for the Investigation of Crimes of Communism is an act of reparation we owe to the survivors, while they are still alive. We, those who were part of that «camp», are the only ones able to decide on this. The souls of the tens or hundreds of millions of dead people are waiting for justice and a peaceful eternal sleep. I am waiting for the Romanian authorities to immediately sign the agreement for the creation of the Tribunal. Otherwise, they will have to be held accountable”, said Dr Camelia Doru, President of ICAR Foundation, the first and only organisation in Romania offering free medical, psychological, social and legal services to former political prisoners who survived the Communist state terror.
