MEDIA ADVISORY

Meeting of the open ended Committee of African Ministers on International Criminal Court (ICC), New York, USA

What: Meeting of the open ended Committee of African Ministers on International Criminal Court (ICC), holding on the margins of the 70th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, USA.

When: Sunday 27 September 2015

Time: From 10:00 – 12 :00 noon EST

Where: Permanent Observer Mission of the AU to the UN - 305 East 47th street 5th floor 3 Dag Hammarskjold plaza

Who: The event organized by the African Union Commission (AUC), Office of the Legal Counsel.
Objective: The purpose of the meeting will be, among others, to determine the Bureau of the Ministerial Committee, engage with the African Group in New York with a view to developing strategies to implement the decisions of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government.

Why: The Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) held at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 12 October 2013 adopted Decision Ext/Assembly/Dec.1(Oct. 2013) on Africa’s relationship with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Participants: As at 4 September 2015, the Member States that have indicated interest in serving on the Open ended Ministerial Committee are as follows:

Burundi, Chad, Cote D’Ivoire, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Namibia, Sudan, South Sudan, Zimbabwe and Senegal.

Background:

1. The meeting of the Open ended Committee of Ministers of Foreign Affairs on the International Criminal Court (ICC) is convened pursuant to Decision Assembly/AU/Dec. 586 (XXV) (herewith attached) adopted by the Assembly during its Twenty Fifth Ordinary Session held in Johannesburg, South Africa in June 2015 on the Update of the Commission on the Implementation of Previous Decisions on the ICC. 

2. Paragraph 4 of the above cited decision provides as follows: “RECOMMENDS the formation of an open-ended Ministerial Committee of Ministers of Foreign Affairs”
3. The purpose of the meeting will be, among others, to determine the Bureau of the Ministerial Committee, engage with the African Group in New York and the AU Permanent Observer Mission to the UN with a view to developing strategies to implement the decisions of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, in particular to:
a. Follow up on the request made by the African Union to the United Nations Security Council on the suspension/deferral of proceedings against President Omar Al-Bashir and urge the UNSC to withdraw the referral case in the Sudan; and 

b. Follow up on the decision of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government that requested the ICC to terminate or suspend the proceedings against Deputy President William Samoei Ruto of Kenya until the African concerns and proposals for amendments of the Rome Statute of the ICC are considered.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is established by a multilateral treaty – the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court – which was adopted by a diplomatic conference in 1998 and which came into force in July 2002. The ICC is an independent judicial institution. Unlike the ad hoc international criminal tribunals created by the United Nations Security Council (the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda), the ICC is not an organ of the United Nations although it has a cooperation agreement with the United Nations. As of May 2009, there are one hundred and twenty three (123) States that are parties to the Rome Statute, 34 of which are African States thereby making Africa the largest regional grouping of States parties. The African States Parties to the Rome Statute are:

Senegal, 02 February 1999; Ghana, 20 December 1999; Mali, 16 August 2000; Lesotho, 06 September 2000; Botswana, 08 September 2000; Sierra Leone, 15 September 2000; Gabon, 20 September 2000; South Africa, 27 November 2000; Nigeria, 27 September 2001; Central African Republic, 03 October 2001; Benin, 22 January 2002; Mauritius, 05 March 2002;
Democratic Republic of the Congo, 11 April 2002; Niger, 11 April 2002;
Uganda, 14 June 2002; Namibia, 25 June 2002; Gambia, 28 June 2002;
United Republic of Tanzania, 20 August 2002; Malawi, 19 September 2002; Djibouti, 05 November 2002; Zambia, 13 November 2002; Guinea, 14 July 2003; Burkina Faso, 16 April 2004; Congo, 03 May 2004; Burundi, 21 September 2004; Liberia, 22 September 2004; Kenya, 15 March 2005; Comoros, 01 November 2006; Chad, 01 January 2007; Madagascar, 14 March 2008; Seychelles, 10 August 2010; Tunisia, 24 June 2011; Cape Verde, 10 October 2011; and Côte d’Ivoire, 15 February 2013.

EAT/

For More information, please contact:

Mr. Adewale Iyanda, Tel: +1 (202) 817 7135, E-mail: Adewalei@africa-union.org

Media Queries contact:
Esther Azaa Tankou, Head of Information Division, Directorate of Information and Communication, African Union Commission Tel: +1 646 546 7776 / +251 911361185, E-mail: yamboue@africa-union.org