Australia and Liechtenstein affirm commitment to UN cooperation

  • Joint Statement

The Hon Julie Bishop MP, Ministerof Foreign Affairs of Australia, and Aurelia Frick, Minister of ForeignAffairs, Justice and Culture of Liechtenstein, affirmed their common commitmenton Thursday in Vaduz to cooperation in the United Nations and the maintenanceof the international rules based order.

During an extensive workingdiscussion in Liechtenstein, the Ministers affirmed their excellent cooperationin the United Nations including on the Code of Conduct for the UN SecurityCouncil, achieving gender equality and women's empowerment, and the fightagainst human trafficking and modern slavery.

Foreign Minister Bishop commendedForeign Minister Frick's leadership in establishing the International,Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria to collect and retain evidence ofinternational crimes committed in Syria, and announced that Australia wouldmake a second financial contribution of $150,000 to the Mechanism.

Both Ministers welcomed the recentexchange of expertise between Australia's Human Rights Commission andLiechtenstein's National Human Rights Institution (NHRI).

Foreign Minister Frick assuredLiechtenstein's support for Australia's candidature to the UN Human RightsCouncil for the 2018-2020 term.

At the meeting both ForeignMinisters reiterated their strong support for the International Criminal Court.They discussed the importance of the Court's ongoing effectiveness,particularly exercising its jurisdiction under proposed crime of aggressionamendments to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court adopted atthe Kampala Review Conference in 2010.

Discussions covered Australia's andLiechtenstein's shared commitment towards global security andcounter-terrorism, including Australia's contribution to the Global Coalitionagainst ISIS and Liechtenstein's initiatives to disrupt terrorist financing.

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