Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning Director General, excellencies, Ambassadors, colleagues. I’d like to start by greeting you on behalf of Ambassador Cindy McCain, who is in Cambodia today meeting partners of the Rome-based food security agencies and observing a regional training on cultural heritage preservation.
I would also like to extend our sincere thanks to our Italian hosts for making possible today’s event. We appreciated Undersecretary Tripodi’s remarks, and thank Ambassador Archi for joining us and chairing this important meeting.
Director-General Beagle, the United States fully aligns itself with your report to this Assembly of Parties. As you noted, now is the time rededicate ourselves to the values of the UN Charter. Working together, with actions grounded in multilateralism, rule of law, and human rights, we can indeed build a world that is more peaceful, just and sustainable.
The U.S. National Security Strategy, published last month, outlines a number of shared challenges – to include climate change, pandemics, economic challenges and food security – that do not respect borders and affect all nations.
On top of the international agenda is Russia’s ongoing, full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We agree with the Director-General, and with Secretary-General Guterres, that this needless crisis has profound implications for human rights, the rule of law, and international peace and security.
For this reason, we applaud IDLO’s long-term work to strengthen the Ukrainian justice sector, including your support to Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General to promote accountability for violations of international criminal and humanitarian law. We look forward to Ukrainian Prosecutor General Kostin’s remarks this afternoon at the IDLO Partnership Forum, and anticipate he’ll detail the Ukrainian government’s sustained focus on strengthening anti-corruption safeguards.
2022 has been a banner year for the U.S.-IDLO Partnership, with the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs providing $28.5 million for new programs. Reading the DG’s report makes clear why — IDLO gets results. In Liberia, Uganda, Somalia, Indonesia, Honduras, Kenya, and the Bahamas, to name a few, U.S. Embassies embrace the opportunity to work in partnership with host countries and with IDLO to build judicial sector capacity. We appreciate and would welcome continued strengthening of indicator-based impact reporting in IDLO reports and sessions like this one about the organization’s program delivery.
The main takeaway of the inaugural U.S.-IDLO Strategic Dialogue last month was that we are already doing a lot together, and yet could still do so much more. We encourage all IDLO member parties to expand your investment in the rule of law, including through IDLO. We congratulate the Netherlands, Sweden, and Italy in particular, for your substantial, unearmarked contributions to IDLO.
The United States underscores the importance of Host Country Agreements everywhere IDLO operates, to protect IDLO staff and safeguard IDLO resources.
Madame Director-General: I will conclude with a word for IDLO’s staff, here in Rome and in the field. Many of you work on exceedingly sensitive issues, often in fragile contexts. You work long hours even in best of times, which for IDLO means dealing with multiple crises at a time. Please know the United States appreciates your service and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with you in this noble pursuit of justice for all.
Thank you.
(as delivered by Alternate Permanent Representative Alison Storsve)