Tunisia will not withdraw from International Criminal Court, says Tunisian Foreign Minister:
Date
7/31/2016 1:27:10 AM
(MENAFN- Emirates News Agency (WAM))
TUNIS, 29th July, 2016 (WAM) -- Tunisia will not withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui, has said at a plenary session of the House of the People's Representatives (HPR).
A controversial debate took place on Tunisia's vote for the decision of the African Union (AU) Ministers' Council on the collective withdrawal from the Court.
The foreign minister explained to the deputies that the decision to withdraw or not is an "individual decision", specific to each member state of the AU, and not "a collective decision".
Some African delegations called for the withdrawal from the ICC, but they have not imposed the decision to member countries, Jhinaoui said.
The Tunisian section of Amnesty International called on Tunisia to clarify its position after the adoption of a proposal by the AU Ministers Council concerning the collective withdrawal from ICC.
President of Amnesty International Tunisia section, Lotfi Azzouz said in an earlier statement to TAP that the organisation had sent a letter to the government and concerned ministries to request the non-withdrawal from ICC .
"The Tunisian government must show courage and provide clarification on its position of principle in favour of human rights," he said The proposal adopted by the member countries of the African Union for a collective withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) comes amid repeated lawsuits against African leaders.
WAM/Ahlam/Majok