ACIJLP appeals to the President of the Republic not to sign the judicial cooperation agreement with the US

The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) appeals to the President of the Republic not to sign the judicial cooperation agreement with the US, ratified by the People's Assembly in its session on Tuesday 16 January 2001. This agreement is part of an American plan to evade the implementation of the International Criminal Court Convention against its personnel existing outside its territories. The US kept tempting various states to sign bilateral agreements, so that these agreement will be applied rather than the ICC convention. It will thus avoid any action be taken against its soldiers in case of violation of the ICC statute.

These bilateral agreements are misuse of article 21 of the ICC statute which allows state parties to demand that a bilateral agreement, they had ratified before ratifying the ICC convention, be applied.

It must be noted that on 13 May 2000, the ACIJLP sent a letter to the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs appealing to him not to respond o the attempts made by the US to undermine the effectiveness of the ICC statute by signing bilateral agreements in order to avoid subjection to the ICC provisions.

The ACIJLP is putting these facts in front of the President of the Republic, and appeals to him not to sign this agreement, in order to abort the US attempts to escape any arrangement that can hold accountable the perpetrators of the crime of genocide, war crimes, the crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression, which will be the jurisdiction of the ICC.