Cairo, 17^th July 2008

Press Release

In celebration of the International Criminal Justice Day

The Egyptian Coalition for the International Criminal Court (ECICC)

Appeals the Egyptian Government to ratify the Rome Statute

Today marks the 10^th  anniversary of the adoption of the  Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court in July 17^th 1998, when 120 States participating in the "United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court" adopted the Statute. This court has the power to prosecute and to sue persons who are involved to commit the most series crimes against humanity, crimes of genocide, war crimes and the crime of aggression.

The Egyptian Coalition for the International Criminal Court (ECICC) noted that although the valuable role and efforts made by the Egyptian delegation participated in the Rome conference establishing the court and also despite that the Egyptian government signed on the Statute of the Court on December 26^th 2000, the Egyptian government has not ratify the Statute yet.

While the ECICC, celebrates the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, it takes this occasion to appeal to the Egyptian government to ratify the Statute of the Court.

On this occasion also, the ECICC appeals to the Egyptian civil society organizations in order to intensify their efforts to raise the legal awareness on the Court, as an international mechanism that establish the international criminal justice and human rights protection, as well as appealing to these organizations to ratify the Statute of the Court.

Worth mentioning that the number of ratifications so far are107 ones, only three Arab countries have ratified the Statute which are Jordan on April 11^th 2002, Djibouti on November 5^th  2002 and the Comoros on Aug. 18^th  2006 . While the total number of signatories to the Convention are 139 Signatories, including 13 Arab countries that signed on the Statute which are:

Egypt on December 26^th 2000, Algeria on December 28^th  2000, Morocco on Sept. 8^th  2000, Sudan on September 8^th  2000, Syria on November 29^th  2000, Kuwait on September 8^th  2000, the Emirates on November 27^th  2000, Bahrain on December 11^th  2000, the Sultanate of Oman On December 20^th  2000 and Yemen on December 28^th  2000.

Countries that have not yet signed on the Convention are 8 Arab countries which are:
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, Mauritania, Tunisia and Libya.