Proposed Arab Court of Human Rights: Rewind the process and get it right

Middle East and North Africa
Issue:
Document Type: Position Paper
Date: 2014

National and global human rights organizations today called upon the Arab League’s member States to suspend efforts to adopt a draft statute of the Arab Court of Human Rights (the Arab Court).

Our organizations are concerned, ahead of the Arab League’s summit to be held in Kuwait on 25 and 26 March, that efforts to adopt a draft statute are being rushed in a way that would be detrimental to the efficacy of the court.

Our organizations believe efforts should be suspended until broad discussions and consultations have taken place with all interested stakeholders, who must be permitted to participate meaningfully in all stages of the process of establishing the Arab Court.

Our organizations call on the on the member States of the League of Arab States (LAS), LAS Summit, and Secretariat to amend the draft statute as detailed in the attached documents.

This statement is supported by:

International Commission of Jurists; International Federation for Human Rights; Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights; Al Haq; Human Rights Watch; Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies; Human Rights Information Training Center; Gulf Center for Human Rights; Human Rights Organization for the Documentation of War Crimes in Libya; Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies; Mauritanian Association for Human Right; Open Society Foundations – Arab Regional Office; Arab Women Organization of Jordan; African Center for Justice and Peace Studies; Bahrain Center for Human Rights; The Yemeni Organization for Defending Rights and Democratic Freedoms – Aden; Legal Agenda

Contact:

Said Benarbia, Director, Middle East & North Africa Programme, t + 41 22 979 38 17, said.benarbi(a)icj.org

Further information:

MENA-Arab Court-Press Release-2014-Eng (Full press release, PDF, English)

MENA-Arab Court-Press Release-2014-Ara (Full press release, PDF, Arabic)

MENA-Arab Court-Position Paper-2014-Eng (Position paper, PDF, English)

MENA-Arab Court-Position Paper-2014-Ara (Position paper, PDF, Arabic)

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