ANTECEDENTES 

La República Árabe de Egipto, el país del Nilo, ha ttenido una larga historia de gobiernos autoritarios y represión. After having ruled the country for 30 years, President Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power in the 2011 during the Arab Spring. The famous Tahrir square protests and other protests in the years that followed resulted in grave human rights violations. After the resignation of Mubarak, Egypt remained in political crisis until General Al Sisi took over power from the Muslim Brotherhood in a coup d'état in 2013 and was elected as President a year later. Members of the Muslim Brotherhood have been imprisoned and over 500 have been sentenced to death after the coup

Egypt signed the Rome Statute in December 2000, along with several other Middle Eastern and North African states, but has yet to ratify it

CAMPAIGN FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE 

Since the early 2000s, Egypt has shown a willingness to ratify the Rome Statute. Its Foreign Minister stated publicly in 2011 that Rome Statute ratification would be a priority for his term. Egypt also amended its penal code to include some of the crimes found in the Rome Statue. The biggest obstacle to Egypt’s ratification, however, is the arrest warrant against Omar al-Bashir of Sudan.

In 2014, a group of lawyers, representing the Muslim Brotherhood Freedom and Justice Party, submitted a request to the Prosecutor of the ICC to investigate crimes committed against civilians since the ouster of Mohammed Morsi. The Court dismissed the communication, arguing that the petitioners could not act on behalf of the State of Egypt.

CIVIL SOCIETY ACTIVITIES

Egyptian civil society sees Rome Statute accession as a great opportunity to end impunity for crimes that occurred in the post-revolution period and to prevent future crimes. Judicial reform is also a topic of particular interest to Egyptian civil society. Both the Egyptian and the Arab Coalition for the ICC have implemented campaigns to raise awareness on the ICC and Egypt and the region.