Attorney General briefs ICC chief on Doha conference
QNA/The HagueHE the Attorney General Dr Ali bin Fetais al-Marri yesterday met the president of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Judge, Sang-Hyun Song, at its headquarters here to discuss recommendations of the Conference of the International Criminal Court, held in Doha last month. The president of the International Criminal Court expressed his thanks to HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani for hosting the first regional conference. He stressed that the Doha conference constituted a platform for dialogue and interaction between the various parties to identify the positions and exchange views on the functioning of the court and its future vision. He also stressed that the conference was the first step in the right direction, adding that he was looking forward to continued co-operation between the court and Qatar. The visit of the Attorney General to the International Criminal Court came in the context of the follow-up of the ICC regional conference, which was held in Doha, in collaboration between the Arab League and the ICC. Dr al-Marri also met Chief ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo. They held talks on a number of topics related to co-operation between the Office of the ICC Prosecutor in The Hague and the Office of the Attorney General in Doha, in addition to a review of the agreement signed between the parties. The Attorney General also met the ICC Registrar, Silvana Arbia, to review the co-operation between the two sides. Silvana praised the results accomplished by the ICC regional conference in Doha, hoping that dialogue mechanism would continue with the same momentum and support provided by Qatar in this respect. The two sides signed the agreement whereby Doha will be the ICC regional seat for information, training and qualifying of Arab Lawyers. They also agreed to exchange information and expertise and to organise direct dialogue between experts from both sides regarding the court’s work in order to reach greater understanding on the nature of its work and to develop mechanisms and create a forum for the exchange of views on the work of the Court. Dr al-Marri, meanwhile, gave a lecture about the desired partnership between Arab countries and the International Criminal Court, attended by a number of ICC judges, judges of the special court on former Yugoslavia, a number of ministers, ambassadors of Arab countries in the Hague, ICC staff including the court’s vice-president, registrar and prosecutor general, as well as members of other international organisations in The Hague. Dr al-Marri underlined the need for the court to distance itself from politics, the necessity of the independence of justice, the belief that justice must be blind, stay away from political intervention, and from selectivity. The ICC vice-president praised the role played by Qatar in this area, noting that it was for the first time during his eight years’ with the court that he was seeing a frank and direct dialogue between the court, represented by its different organs, and representatives from the Arab countries despite their non-accession to the ICC Rome Statute.