Regional Conferences

Cairo- February 21-24, 2003]

Second Arab Justice Conference

“Supporting and Promoting the Independence of Judiciary”

Overview of the conference:

· Opening Ceremony and reception:

The opening session and reception convened on Friday , February 21^st ,2003 at the Journalist Association – Main hall Cairo. This session chaired by Ms. Tahany Al-Gebaly, Justice of Supreme Constitutional Court.

· Introductory Remarks:

The Arab Center for Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) Mr. Nasser Amin , Director

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Dr. Adel Abdel Latif, regional coordinator, Good Governance in Arab countries program.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR) Dr. Amin Mecki Madani, regional representative

The Arab League States Mr. Mahmoud Rashed, Director, Human Rights administration

Three hundred participants of international and regional jurists, media and diplomatic were participated. M. Tahany Al-Gebaly. Justice of Supreme Constitutional Court, was honored for her role of judiciary in defending human rights and independence of judiciary as well as she is the first woman judge in Egypt.

· Six General Panels:

Subject	General session
The main paper “Judicial Independence in the Arab World”	1
Guarantees for the Independence of Judicial Branch in Asian Countries	2
The experiment of the independence of judiciary in Francophone countries	3
Impact of the international law rules on the judicial systems	4
The Role of the Civil Society in Promoting and Strengthening Judicial Independence	5
The International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) Guide for Judicial Independence and Perspectives on Judicial Independence Promotion in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa	6

Work groups:-

The conference included four parallel work groups in order to conduct detailed discussions and to present necessary final recommendations of the conference as the following:

First group: (Guarantees for the Independence of the judiciary) included:

a. The Impact of Lack of Enforcement of the provisions according to Judicial Independence.

b. Financial Independence of judges: The Relationship with the Executive authority.

c. Judicial competent and its role towards independent judges.

d. Guarantees for Personal Security of the Judge.

e. the interference of the Ministries Council and the Ministry of Justice in judicial authority affairs

Second group: (Independence and impartiality of the Individual Judge) included:

a. Privileges and immunity of individual judge.

b. Impartiality of the Judge and the Principle of Judicial Independence .

c. The Impact of Customs and Tribal power on the Independence of the authority.

Third group: (The Relation among powers) included:

a. The impact of the State of Emergency on the judicial authority & judges.

b. The Role of the executive power on the statute for judges.

c. The Impact of Judicial Independence on compacting immunity.

Fourth group: (The Role of Civil Society in Judicial Independence) included:

a. The impact of the judicial weakness on the principle of judicial independence.

b. The Role of Tribal Arbitration.

c. Freedom of Opinion and Expression as a Principle of Judicial Independence.

Chairs of general sessions:

No	Name	Title
1	Prof. Yehya El Gamal	professor law – Cairo University, lawyer, court of cassation , Egypt.
2	Prof. Awad El Mour	Former president of Egyptian Constitutional Supreme Court – Lawyer
3	Prof. Ibrahiem Darwish	professor , Constitutional law- Cairo University
4	Mr. Luc Wallyen	President , lawyers without boarders organization, lawyer
5	Mr. Ravinder Joshi	Legal advisor , International Commission of Jurists, ICJ
6	Justice Luis Fernando Solano	The Supreme Court, Costa Rica

Chairs & Rapporteurs of Work Groups :

No	Chair	Title	Rapporteur	Title
1	Mr. Negad El Boraie	Lawyer of cassation	Ms. Sabika El Najar	Director General of Bahrain Human Rights Organization
2	Mr. Sliemam Taqey Aldien	Lebanese Lawyer	Justice. Imam Abdel Zaher	Justice. Egyptian Court of Appeal
3	Mr. Assem Abdel Gabar	Justice. Egyptian Court of Appeal	Mr. Yasser Hassen	Lawyer & Member of Arab Organization for Human Rights
4	Mr. Mahmoud Mortada	Director of the Center of Alternative Development Studies	Mr. Hafez Abou Seeda	Secretary General of Egyptian organization for Human Rights

Research Papers:

No	Writer	Paper
1	-Prof. Adel Omar Sherif, Deputy Chief Justice, Supreme Constitutional Court, Egypt. -Prof . Nathan J. Brown, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs , The George Washington University-International Foundation for Election System (IFES)- USA	Judicial Independence in the Arab World
2	Professor Nihal Jayawickrama, coordinator, Judicial group for promoting judicial indignity UN, Sri-Lanka	Guarantees for the Independence of the Judicial Branch in Asian Countries
3	Prof. Taimor Fawzy Mostafa Kamel , Deputy President, administrative prosecution , and consultant, the organization of Francophone countries - France	The experiment of the independence of judiciary in Francophone countries
4	Ms .Evelyn Sire-Marin, President, Association of Judges in Paris , France	Impact of the international law rule on the judicial systems
5	Prof . Mohammad Sayed Said, Deputy Director, Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies - Egypt	The Role of the Civil Society in Promoting and Strengthening Judicial Independence
6	-Professor Keith Henderson , IFES Senior Rule of Law Advisor, U.S.A. - Justice Luis Fernando Solano, The Supreme Court, Costa Rica	Guide for Judicial Independence and Perspectives on Judicial Independence Promotion in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa
7	Prof. Mohamad Kamel Obeid, Professor of Law, Cairo University, Egypt	The Impact of Lack of Enforcement of the provisions according to Judicial Independence
8	Ms. Zeynat El-Mansoury, Lawyer, Bahrain	Financial Independence of judges: The Relationship with the Executive authority
9	Prof. Khaled Quabani, Professor of Law, Lebanon.	Guarantees for Personal Security of the Judge, & the interference of the Ministries Council and the Ministry of Justice in judicial authority affairs
10	Prof. Abdallah Hamed, Professor of Law, Riyadh University, Saudi Arabia	Impartiality of the Judge and the Principle of Judicial Independence
11	Mr. Farouk El-Kilani, Former President of the Court of Cassation in Jordan	Immunities and Guarantees for the Independence of the individual Judge
12	Mr. Ahmad El-Sarraj Justice, Morocco	The Role of the executive power on the statute for judges
13	Dr . Haytham Mannah, The Arab Commission for Human Rightsm, Syria.	The impact of the State of Emergency on the judicial authority & judges
14	Prof. Gady Abdelkareem, Co-chairman, Judicial Council, Professor, The National Judicial Institute, Algeria.	The Impact of Judicial Independence on the compacting immunity
15	Prof. Abdelhussein Chaaban, Legal Consultant & Researcher, Iraq.	Relationship between the Weakness of the Judiciary and the Role of Tribal Arbitration
16	Prof. Ghazi Ghrairi, Professor, University of Tunisia, Tunisia.	Freedom of Opinion and Expression as a Principle of Judicial Independence
17	Justice. Hamouda Al-Hitar	The Impact of Customs and Tribal power on the Independence of the authority

Participants: (75 persons)

Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Bahrain, Egypt, France, United States of America, Costa Rika, Geneva, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Yemen and Mauritania.

International Organization :( 9 organization)

·United Nations Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

·United Nations Development Program (UNDP)

·Arab League States

·International Organization of Francophone Countries

·International Commission of Jurists

·International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)

·Judicial group for promoting judicial indignity UN

·Association of Judges in Paris

·No Peace Without Justice

Egyptian Governmental Organizations :( 2)

·Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

·Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies - Egypt

Arab NGOs (7)

a. Arab Organization for Human Rights-Egypt

b. The Center of Alternative Development Studies-Egypt

c. Bahrain Human Rights Organization-Bahrain

d. Egyptian organization for Human Rights-Egypt

e. Arab Commission for Human Rights-France

f. Iraqi Network for Human Rights-England

g. Syrian Forum for Human Rights-Syria

Scientific institutions :(9)

1. Tunisia University

2. Reyadh University

3. Lebanon University

4. Gorge Washington University

5. National Institute for Algerain Judiciary

6. Cairo University

7. BaniSwief University

8. Tnta University

9. Alexandria University

Media coverage :( 22)

· News Nile

· Channel Three (The legal view program)

· Orbit channel

· Tanwier channel

· General program radio

· Cultural program radio

No	Newspaper	Page	date
1	El Ahrar	7	21/2/2003
2	El Arabi	9	22/2/2003
3	El Ahrar	6	23/2/2003
4	El Ahram	14	23/2/2003
5	El Akhbar	11	23/2/2003
6	El Ahrar	6	23/2/2003
7	El Wafd	2	23/2/2003
8	El Ahrar	8	24/2/2003
9	El Ahrar	4	24/2/2003
10	El Ahrar	4 + Press Conference	24/2/2003
11	El Wafd	2	24/2/2003
12	El Ahrar	7	25/2/2003
13	El Ahali	3	26/2/2003
14	El Ahrar	7	26/2/2003
15	El Ahram	8	3/3/2003

Recommendations:

Cairo Declaration on Judicial Independence

The Second Arab Justice Conference

“Supporting and Promoting the Independence of Judiciary”

Cairo – February 21-24, 2003

The second Arab justice conference, “Supporting and Promoting the Independence of Judiciary”, was held on February 21-24, 2003 in Cairo, Egypt. The conference was organized by the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession in cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Development Program. A number of research papers on the status of judicial independence in Arab countries including Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Bahrain were presented. In addition, the lessons learned in various experiments with judicial independence were presented from jurisdictions such as France, Costa Rica and Latin America. The results of research studies from specialist organizations such as International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the International Organization of Francophone Countries were also presented.

The participants to the conference adopted the following Cairo Declaration on Judicial Independence.

Cairo Declaration on Judicial Independence

Preamble

The participants to the Second Arab Justice Conference:

Recognizing that an independent judiciary is a central pillar in guaranteeing public freedoms, human rights, comprehensive development processes, the reform of trade and investments and trade cooperation between countries and the establishment of democratic institutions,

Affirming that the main obstacle to judicial independence in most Arab countries is the absence of an institutional approach especially in judiciary,

Emphasizing that the absence of democracy and the rule of law have played an crucial role in violating the principle of judicial independence,

Acknowledging that the interference of the executive powers in the judicial authority including the appointment, transferal, promotion, discharge and management of judges professional affairs occurs in most Arab countries and is an obstacle to establishing an independent judiciary,

Recognizing the deterioration of judicial education and the lack of culture supporting judicial independence,

Recognizing that Arab legislation fails to promote the independence of the judiciary, and that the use of exceptional laws do not provide safeguards for the rule of law,

We resolve to promote the following recommendations at both the governmental and non-governmental levels:

1. Affirm among the three branches of government the commitment to the United Nations principles on the independence of the judiciary adopted by the General Assembly in 1985, and the Beirut Declaration of the first Arab justice conference in 1999.

2. Adopt effective strategies (drafted by the judiciary) to implement the necessary legal reforms to protect judicial independence and the separation of powers in Arab countries. Such strategies shall include the following:

a. Calling for the formation of specialized committees on judicial reform for each Arab country, composed of representatives of the three arms of government and civil society to establish practical steps to implement the United Nations fundamental principles on the independence of the judiciary.

b. Urging civil societies in the Arab region to establish an Arab network of institutions related to the status of justice and judicial independence. Such networks should aim to create a popular climate conducive to the promotion of judicial independence in the Arab region.

c. Calling for the establishment of a network of judicial and civil society institutions in the Arab region. One function of the network should be ongoing monitoring of the status of the independence of judiciary, and the publication of periodic reports on each Arab country regarding legislative developments in relation to the implementation of relevant principles.

d. Forming a non-governmental Arab organization for judges in order to promote solidarity, exchange experiences, and strengthen the independence of judiciary.

e. Guaranteeing the financial independence of the judicial authority and including an article regarding judicial independence in the budget and balance sheet of the state.

f.Increasing the flow of communication and information between the public and the judicial authority, including the trial process in order to increase transparency .

g.Cooperating with international organizations in order to support the independence of judiciary.

3. Reform the appointment, promotion, and disciplinary procedures against judges in order to increase transparency and lessen interference, and referring judicial affairs to high judicial councils.

4. Call for the drafting of a code of conduct for judges.

5. Strengthen the capacity of judges to express their freedom of opinion in institutes, societies and clubs and the ability to defend their independence.

6. Establish a specialized judicial institution for qualifying judges, specifically focussing on the need for judicial training.

7. Affirm the necessity of applying judicial provisions that respect the independence of the judicial authority and guarantee the rights of claimants.

8. Abolish exceptional legislation and courts that remove individual freedoms and rights, such as the right to resort to a natural judge, and guarantees for the right to file a case.

9. Guarantee the right of appeal to an independent higher authority.

10. Simplify the judicial procedures and ensure judgments are issued in a reasonable period .

11. Restrict the power of military courts to try only military cases and not civilians.

12. Call upon Arab governments to sign the individual complaint mechanisms contained in the two optional protocols attached to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.

13. Call for disseminating of human rights education throughout the entire educational process.

These recommendations were adopted by the participants of the second Arab justice conference in Cairo on 24 February 2003.

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