MOHAMED
AREF
A HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER'S
(Note interne : Amnesty International)
INTERNAL
CORRESPONDENCE ----
Date 24 July 1998
Subject
International Criminal Court - diplomatic Conference Action
Desired
For your information Dear Pierre, I am writing to you to let you know how
much I and the rest of the Amnesty International delegation valued the contribution
of Aref Mohamed Aref, before and during the diplomatic conference in Rome.
I have known Aref for
many years, starting with my work with him at he African Commission on Human
and Peoples' rights.
He impressed me with his
quick grasp of complex legal issues and his excellent lobbying skills, so
it was natural that we would ask him to go with me to the Dakar conferences
on the International Criminal Court.
His energy and determination
were essential in ensuring that both the declaration at the non-governmental
organization meeting and the one organized by the Government of Senegal and
No Peace without Justice were strong.
Of course, we then asked
him to join us as a delegate to the final session of the Preparatory Committee
on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court.
He played a crucial role in developing a generally unified African government
position in practice at the Preparatory Committee, bridging the unhappy gaps
which existed between countries speaking different languages.
His ability to shift effortlessly
between Arabic, French and English in the same conversation and his great
personal charm helped build up trust of government officials and representatives
of non-governmental organizations from all parts of Africa.
He also paid a crucial
visit to Burkina Faso during the session to lobby the incoming Chair of the
OAU on the International Criminal Court. Largely as a result of his work,
Africa became an important and positive power bloc at the diplomatic conference.
It was then inevitable
that we would invite him to become a member of the Amnesty International delegation
in Rome for the entire five weeks of the diplomatic conference.
If
there is one hero I would single out among non-governmental organization representatives,
it would be Aref.
His inexhaustible energy
and unwavering determination were responsible for African governments staying
generally united in support of a strong court and resisting incredibly strong
pressure from the United States, including threats to withdraw economic assistance.
Without the strong support
of African governments, we simply would not have had an International Criminal
Court. He was particularly effective with new delegates who had not been involved
in the work of the Preparatory Committee and with francophone African government
delegated, where he had to labour under the enormous handicap of not having
any French translations of Making the right choices.
He often had to spend
valuable time translating key parts of our materials into French to assist
these delegates, but it paid off in the end as these delegates came to him
again and again for assistance in developing their government's position.
He also undertook the
equally difficult task of ensuring a unified position among non-governmental
organizations from the South and helped ensure that the declaration of non-governmental
organizations from Asia, Africa and Latin America included everyone of Amnesty
International's16 fundamental principles.
He
demonstrated an excellent ability to work with people from all parts of the
world and on a wide variety of issues. I hope that Aref's invaluable work
receives the recognition it deserves from the movement.
I look forward to working
with him in the future on ratification of the Statute and other issues.
His talent need to
be exploited, not only by Amnesty International, but by other non-governmental
organizations working for the cause of human rights everywhere.
Yours
sincerely,
Christopher Keith Hall
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