Notes on the Intersessional meeting of the PrepComm for the ICC, convened by the Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences at the invitation of the Government of Italy in Siracusa, Italy. The Intersessional addressed pending issues with regard to the Elements of Crimes.

From 31 January to 6 February 2000 an Intersessional meeting of the PrepComm for the ICC took place in Siracusa at the Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences at the invitation of the Government of Italy. The Intersessional addressed pending issues with regard to the Elements of Crimes.
The issues involved concerned the following: Elements of Crimes and mistake of fact or mistake of law as under article 32 of the Statute; Elements of Crimes and elements involving value judgement; Elements of Crimes, "inchoate offences" and command responsibility, Elements of Crimes and the question of overlap of crimes; general introduction to the Elements of Crimes and relationship between article 30 (mental element) and the Elements of Crimes for article 6, 7 and 8, and the structure of the Elements of Crimes and contextual elements.
The result of the meeting was a document aimed at facilitating the work on Elements of Crimes at the next PrepComm Session.
The Intersessional Meeting hosted also a seminar on "Protection of victims, in particular of special groups of victims, such as children and disable persons". The main goal was to discuss the issue of victims in the context of Rules of Procedure and Evidence as approved in first reading by the PrepComm. The result was a document containing recommendations on rules related to parts IV (Composition and Administration of the Court); V (Investigation and Prosecution); VI (the Trial) and VII (Penalties) of the Statute.