The President of Assembly of States Parties to Rome Statute of International Criminal Court In a consultative meeting with Egyptian civil society organizations and activists

Cairo, 7^th May 2012

Press Release

The President of Assembly of States Parties to Rome Statute of International Criminal Court

In a consultative meeting with Egyptian civil society organizations and activists

H.E. Ambassadress "Tina Intelmann" President of Assembly of States Parties to Rome Statute of International Criminal Court meets with many of the leaders of human rights, the officials of Egyptian civil society organizations and members of the Egyptian Coalition for the International Criminal Court on 7th May 2012 for consultation, follow-up comments and discussion on the necessary steps taken by Egypt to ratify and access to the international Criminal Court. In addition to discussing the obstacles facing the ratification and accession of Egypt to the international Criminal Court.

This consultative meeting comes within the framework of the visit of the President of Assembly of States Parties to the International Criminal Court to Egypt in the period from May 6 to 7 of 2012, which includes a number of meetings and consultations both at the formal or informal level where it is arranged that the President of Assembly of States Parties to ICC will meet with the Egyptian parliament, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and Mr. Nabil Al Arabi, Secretary General of the League of Arab States.

Some of the organizations members of the Egyptian Coalition for the ICC, such as The Arab Center for the Independence of Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP), the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS),  the United Group, the Group for Democratic Development, Hisham Mubarak Law Center, the Arab Penal Reform Organization, the Center For Prisoners Legal Assistance, the Arab Program for Human Rights Activists, the Center for Alternative Development Studies, Andalus Institute for Tolerance and anti-Violence Studies (AITAS), The Egyptian Association For Community Participation Enhancement (EACPE) and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights will participate in the meeting.

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 ratifications 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.