Press releases

Targeting civilians and killing civilians outside the limits of law is a regression of the humanitarian gains

4 December, 2007

The Arab Center for the Independence of Judiciary and Legal Profession (ACIJLP) condemns targeting and killing civilians outside the limits of law by armed violence groups, which regarded as a regression of the humanitarian gains.

The center sees that the continued attacks that Algiers and Morocco faced lately, in addition to what Iraq face every day, which targets civilians can’t be justified and it’s not accepted. Furthermore it is regarded as a wide-ranging attack on civilians citizens in one of the images of crimes against humanity.

While the center condemn this criminal acts against civilians, it call upon the international community to confront this phenomenon, and to bring those persons, who committed these crimes, before the criminal justice in courts that fulfill the international procedures of fair and just trails.

The center also call upon the Arab Countries to try not to be affected of these events towards the situations of human rights, and not to enact laws or legislatives that limit of violate human’s fundamental rights, under so-called terrorism fighting laws.

The center noting that the democratic and political reforms, and the trend of more freedom and human rights protection and strengthen in the Arab region will have a great effect in confronting the armed violence groups.

The Sudanese government must hand over Ahmed Haroun and Ali Kowshayb to the ICC

11 July, 2007

The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) impresses on the Sudanese government the urgent need to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) as an independent international judicial mechanism and urges the government to accede to the ICC prosecutor’s demand that Ahmed Haroun, former State Minister of Internal Affairs and the present State Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Mohamed Abdel Rahman, also known as Ali Kowshayb, be handed over. The two men are accused of having committed crimes falling within the ICC’s jurisdiction according to article 5 of the ICC’s Rome Statute.

ACIJLP urges the Sudanese government to cooperate with the ICC prosecutor, seeing cooperation as the best and most just route out of the present crisis in Darfour which was transferred to the ICC under Security Council resolution 1593 issued in 2005 under Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter.

ACIJLP fears that the Sudanese government’s continued non-cooperation with the ICC and its refusal to hand over the two accused men will lead to a worsening of the situation in Darfour, at a time when average incidents of crimes committed are increasing – which has led to the forced displacement of civilians and endangerment of their lives.

ACIJLP underlines to the Sudanese government that the probity and independence of the ICC and the guarantees provided under articles 66 and 67 of the Rome Statute together ensure that the accused men will receive a fair and impartial trial and also prevent the court from assuming a political character.

Arrest warrants for the two men were issued on 2^nd May 2007 upon the request of the ICC prosecutor. The court concluded that there was credible reason to believe that the accused men had a role in crimes committed in Darfour falling within its jurisdiction.

ACIJLP calls upon both of the Egyptian president and the Libyan president for immediate interference to the execution of about 24 Egyptian citizens in Libya

23 May, 2007

Within the frame of the center’s follow up of the Egyptian citizens crisis in Libya, who convicted in criminal crimes, the center sent a letter to both of His Excellency the president of Egypt and His Excellency the president of Libya, calling upon there excellencies to interfere to stop the execution penalty against 24 Egyptian citizens, twelve of them will be executed during the next week.

The letters included urgent request for the both presidents to interfere to stop the execution penalty, until the end of the conciliation procedures between the convicted persons and the families of the victims, which is permitted by the provisions of the Libyan law.

The letters also clarified that some Libyan civil society institutions expressed there full readiness to lend a helping hand the Egyptian convicted persons and to assist them in baying the blood money for the families of the victims and making conciliation with them. In addition to that they will send them to Egypt, provided that will be a party from the Egyptian Embassy in Libya to coordinate with these institutions, but the Egyptian Embassy didn’t take the needed procedures.

Furthermore the two letters noted that there are ongoing procedures in the present moment to look for the victims’ families and to make conciliation with them according to the provisions of the Libyan law, but this will take some time. For these reasons the center directed its letters to the Presidents in order to interfere personally to stop the up mentioned judgments.

Targeting civilians and killing civilians outside the limits of law is a regression of the humanitarian gains

12 April, 2007

The Arab Coalition welcomes the Yemeni parliament’s ratification of the Rome Statute and urges it to make the legislative changes necessary to bring domestic laws in line with the Statute

27 March, 2007

The Arab Coalition for an International Criminal Court (ACICC) receives with great pleasure the news that Yemen has ratified the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute. ACICC regards this as a positive step towards realising criminal justice, protecting human rights and ending the escape from punishment.

The Yemeni parliament approved the International Criminal Court’s statute in a session convened on Saturday 24^th March 2007. Four Arab States are now members of the ICC: Jordan, Djibouti, the Comoros Islands and Yemen. Thirteen States have signed the founding statute: Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Djibouti, the Comoros Islands, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Yemen.

ACICC believes that in order for the ratification to constitute a positive step, swift legislative changes must be made to domestic laws in order to bring them in line with the International Criminal Court’s founding statute.

While ACICC welcomes this step, it urges other Arab States to become members of the permanent International Criminal Court in its capacity as a tool for allowing international criminal justice to become entrenched and for protecting human rights.

Urgent appeal to the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions

14 February, 2007

The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) urges the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions to take urgent action and present a petition to the Iraqi authorities concerned demanding that the death sentence handed down to Taha Yassin Ramadan, the former deputy president of Iraq, not be implemented.

ACIJLP believes that Ramadan’s trial lacked the basic guarantees of a fair and unbiased trial, particularly the standards laid down in article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). ACIJLP also believes that the sentence issued against Ramadan may be motivated by unsound reasons, or for reasons of revenge, rather than seeking justice. This is particularly the case given that it contravenes the principles and rules of criminal justice according to which the plaintiff should not be harmed by an appeal, and the second instance (appeal) court must not issue a sentence harsher than that of the first instance court, especially since that it is charged with examining the application of the law rather than the facts.

ACIJLP therefore directs appeals to the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions to make every effort to persuade the Iraqi government to stop the implementation of this verdict. It calls on the Iraqi president to make effective article 6(4) of the ICCPR which states that “anyone sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence. Amnesty, pardon or commutation of the sentence of death may be granted in all cases.”

Taha Hussein Ramadan was arrested on 19^th August 2003 and stood trial with others in the Dujail trial. He was given a life sentence on the 5^th November 2006 (his lawyer was assassinated on 8^th November 2005) but the appeals court rejected this sentence as being too lenient, and demanded that he be executed. A death sentence was issued on the 12^th February 2007.

Targeting civilians and killing civilians outside the limits of law is a regression of the humanitarian gains

The Sudanese government must hand over Ahmed Haroun and Ali Kowshayb to the ICC

ACIJLP calls upon both of the Egyptian president and the Libyan president for immediate interference to the execution of about 24 Egyptian citizens in Libya

Targeting civilians and killing civilians outside the limits of law is a regression of the humanitarian gains

The Arab Coalition welcomes the Yemeni parliament’s ratification of the Rome Statute and urges it to make the legislative changes necessary to bring domestic laws in line with the Statute

Urgent appeal to the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions

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