Egypt

Cairo, 13^th April 2008

Technical seminars, workshops and training sessions on the ICC

International jurists to participate in events organised by the Egyptian Coalition for the International Criminal Court

The Egyptian Coalition for the International Criminal Court and a number of Egyptian organisations held a consultative meeting on Thursday 10^th April 2008 in the headquarters of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and at the invitation of the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP), the coordinator of the Egyptian Coalition.

The meeting sought to put in place a strategy to bring about Egypt’s ratification and membership of the ICC and to widen the number of NGO members of the Egyptian Coalition. Participants in the meeting also consulted on the participation of some of the Egyptian Coalition’s NGO members in the final phase of the 6^th session of the organisation of member states of the ICC, to be held from the 2^nd – 6^th June 2008.

The meeting studied mechanisms put forward to raise juristic awareness of the ICC, and adopted a plan aimed at making contact with Egyptian media institutions in order to strengthen and increase the involvement of these institutions in the activities of the ICC, the development of its work and the cases examined before it.

As part of the Egyptian Coalition’s strategy for the coming stage Egyptian NGOs will increase activity concerned with Egypt’s ratification and membership of the ICC. Each NGO member of the Egyptian Coalition will undertake one of the activities aimed at raising awareness of the importance of Egypt’s membership of the ICC. Activities include press statements urging the Egyptian government to join the ICC and workshops, training sessions targeting rights activists, members of the media and members of Parliament.

The Egyptian Coalition’s strategy for the coming phase is centered around the following pivots:

1. Press statement campaign

A periodical press statement will be issued by members of the Egyptian Coalition which will urge the Egyptian government to ratify and become a member of the ICC. Each of the following NGOs will issue its own statement:

• The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights,  April 2008
• The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, April 2008
• Al-Andalus Center for Studies of Tolerance and Non-Violence, May 2008
• The Alliance for Arab Women, May 2008
• The Center for Rural Studies, June 2008
• The Egyptian Organisation for the Spread and Development of Legal Awareness, June 2008
• The Egyptian Organisation for Scientific Development, July 2008
• The Egyptian Transparency Organisation, July 2008
• The Egyptian Institute for Development of the Family, August 2008
• The One World Institute for Development, August 2008
• The Human Rights Association for the Assistance of Prisoners, September 2008

2. Training sessions

The training sessions are aimed at raising the level of awareness of the importance and role of the ICC. A number of rights activists, members of the media, members of parliament and faculty of law students in Egypt will take part in the training sessions.

The following NGOs will organise this activity:

1. Al-Andalus Center for Tolerance and Non-Violence will organise a training session for students of law faculties in July 2008.
2. The Human Rights Association for the Assistance of Prisoners will organise a training session for Egyptian lawyers in August 2008.

3. Workshops and seminars

This activity is concerned with studying the problems facing the process of Egypt’s ratification and membership of the ICC. It will also study the importance of the ICC’s role in protecting human rights and enabling international criminal justice to take root.

1. The Egyptian Organisation for Scientific Development will organise a workshop on the ICC in the Cairo Library in May 2008.
2. The Alliance for Arab Women will hold a seminar on the ICC which will be attended by international jurist Cherif Bassiouni.

The NGOs which participated in this meeting decided to hold another meeting in the headquarters of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights on 20^th April 2008.

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