The ACIJLP Calls upon Egyptian People's Assembly To Ratification and accession to the International Criminal Court

Cairo, 6^th May 2012

 

The ACIJLP Calls upon Egyptian People's Assembly

To Ratification and accession to the International Criminal Court

 

he Arab Center for Independence of the Judiciary and Legal Professions (ACIJLP) - as the coordinator of the Arab Coalition for the establishment of the International Criminal Court - Calls upon Egyptian People's Assembly  to ratify and access to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, especially since the Arab Republic of Egypt has signed the Rome Convention on the International Criminal Court on 28^th December 2000 and the last remaining procedure to enter into force is the ratification of Egyptian People's Assembly  on this Convention.

The ACIJLP points out that through  ratifying the Rome Statute and accessing to the ICC, this Statute become a part of the internal national legislation and will lead to the beginning of  a relationship of integration between the Egyptian judiciary and the International Criminal Court on the prosecution and the accountability of those involved in committing the most serious crimes such as crimes of war, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression where the priority will be given to the Egyptian judiciary, in accordance with the provisions of this statute.

The ACIJLP calls upon the Egyptian People's Assembly  to seize this historic opportunity that experienced by the Arab Republic of Egypt represented in the transition from an authoritarian regime to an independent democratic regime. The ACIJLP also confirms that the ratification of the Rome Statute and the accession to the ICC by the Egyptian People's Assembly will make Egypt one of the developed nations in the institutionalization of international criminal justice and in the field of combating impunity. Moreover, it will emphasize Egypt's respect for its international conventions and commitments and its support for the role of the International Criminal Court as a judicial mechanism concerned with the prosecution and the accountability of those involved in committing the most serious crimes, according to trials taking into account integrity, impartiality and fair trial guarantees and according to the standards contained in the relevant international conventions.

The ACIJLP stresses that Egypt especially after the 25^th January Revolution is no longer less than their counterparts from the Arab countries which have ratified and acceded to the International Criminal Court including Jordan, Djibouti, Comoros, Tunisia. The ratification and accession of Egypt to the International Criminal Court, will be, with regard to the leadership of Egypt in the Arab region, as a motive for many Arab countries, to take the necessary procedures on the ratification of and accession to the international Criminal Court.

It should be noted that the International Criminal Court was established under the Rome Convention in 1998, and  its Statute entered into force on 17^th July 2002  and by the beginning of January 2011, the number of signatories to the Rome Statute are 114 countries, 31 countries from Africa, 15 countries from Asia, 18 countries from Eastern Europe, 25 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean and 25 countries from the Western European Group (WEOG) and other countries.

It is noteworthy that (13) Arab countries had signed the Rome Statute: Jordan, UAE, Bahrain, Algeria, Djibouti, Sudan, Syria, Oman, Comoros, Kuwait, Egypt, Morocco and Yemen, however, 4 of which only ratified and acceded to the Rome Statute, namely, (Jordan, Djibouti, Comoros, and Tunisia) and 6 Arab countries did not sign the Statute including Qatar, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Mauritania.