The Results of the consultative meeting with Egyptian civil society organizations and activists And The President of Assembly of States Pa

Cairo, 8^th May 2012

The Results of the consultative meeting with Egyptian civil society organizations and activists

                                                                 And                                                  

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

The event of the consultative meeting organized by the Arab Center for the Independence of Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) has ended on 7^th May 2012. Many human rights activists, heads of Egyptian civil society organizations, members of the Egyptian Coalition for the International Criminal Court and H.E. Ambassadress "Tina Intelmann" President of Assembly of States Parties to Rome Statute of International Criminal Court has attended the meeting. The meeting aimed at 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.

The meeting discussed the issues addressed by the ICC, and limiting these issues on the African countries. The discussions has indicated that the proceedings which is driven by the court or referred to it by the Security Council are not against countries because this does not fall within the jurisdiction of the court, which shall prosecute persons or individuals involved in committing the most serious crimes. Moreover, there are many fears which are made ​​by States that do not wish to ratify the Statute since 2002, and these fears are not justified if there is a desire to join and support the international criminal justice.

The meeting also discussed that crimes are committed in many Arab countries particularly those witnessing the "Arab spring" fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court so that those in power are reluctant to ratify the Statute of the ICC.  The discussions have indicated that Court in some of these countries collects information or inquiries about the crimes or violations of the International Human Rights Law or international humanitarian law during periods of transition or after the revolutions such as some ministers in the Egyptian government.

Members of the Egyptian parliament, for example, believes in the need to ratify and join the International Criminal Court, and here is the role the institutions of civil society to activate their campaigns and form work groups from the media and academics in order to support the ratification of the International Criminal Court, especially since Egypt has signed the Rome Statute in 2000.

The meeting also discussed that the UN Human Rights Council can play a good role on supporting the ratification of the Rome Statute and makes this matter among the issues that can be discussed in the universal periodic review, especially since there will be a comprehensive conference to International Council for Human rights in 2013.

Regarding the definition of the crime of aggression, the discussions addressed the definition of this crime, but this definition requires the ratification of thirty countries in order to enter into force. However, one ratification has been obtained till now and 29 ratifications are remaining to enter this definition into force.

Concerning the role of the Security Council, its non-neutrality in some times and using of the court to achieve political objectives, the discussions revealed that there is a need for the Security Council  because the court has no power to implement its decisions and judgments, and that the Security Council could play this role. The Security Council's role in the cases referred to the court is limited only on the subject of the referral and the court is responsible for deciding the acceptability of the lawsuit. However, the largest possible number of States should ratify the statute to limit the political role of the Security Council.

The discussions threw light on the role hoped for civil society organizations in raising awareness of the importance of ratification and accession to the court to establish the international criminal justice and anti-culture of impunity.

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.