ACIJLP (The Arab Center for Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession) urges the Egyptian Government to extradite the Sudanese President El Bashir – currently visiting Egypt – to ICC (International Criminal Court) out of respect to its international obligations and as a signatory to the ICC Statute in December 26th, 2000.

ACIJLP and Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-violence Studies will submit a report to the Egyptian General Prosecutor to take the necessary measures to arrest the Sudanese President – during his stay in Egypt – and extradite him to ICC.

Despite the fact that the signatory states to ICC Statute – but don't ratify or join yet – are not obliged to meet actual legal obligations, yet such signature reveals their intent to take tangible measures to express their willingness to abide by the Statute in a subsequent period. ACIJLP indicated.

Signing the ICC Agreement entails commitment on the signatory states - in the interval period between signature and ratification, acceptance or approval – to refrain in good will from committing any acts that would defeat the object and purpose of the agreement as stipulated in Article 18 of Vienna convention 1996: " A State is obliged to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purpose of a treaty when: (a) it has signed the treaty or has exchanged instruments constituting the treaty subject to ratification, acceptance or approval, until it shall have made its intention clear not to become a party to the treaty; or (b) it has expressed its consent to be bound by the treaty, pending the entry into force of the treaty and provided that such entry into force is not unduly delayed".

It's worth mentioning that the provisions of the said article apply to the Arab signatory states to Rome Statute which established the ICC, including:

Egypt 26 Dec 2000 – Algeria 28 Dec 2000 – Morocco 8 Sept 2000 – Sudan 8 Sept 2000 - Syrian Arab Republic 29 Nov 2000 – Kuwait 8 Sept 2000 - United Arab Emirates 27 Nov 2000 - Bahrain 11 Dec 2000 - Oman 20 Dec 2000 - Yemen 28 Dec 2000.

ACIJLP sees that such signature entails international commitment on the part of the Arab signatory states not to commit war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and shall penalize such crimes in their respective national legislations in accordance with the principle of good will.