On 15 October 2014, the President of the Assembly of States Parties ("the Assembly"), H.E. Ms. Tiina Intelmann ("the President") addressed the 6th meeting of the Parliamentary Working Group on the Universality of the Rome Statute in the Middle East and North Africa, which was hosted by the Majlis al-Nuwaab, the House of Representatives of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and was organized by Parliamentarians for Global Action.
The meeting was attended by members of Parliament from Jordan and Tunisia, which are States Parties to the Rome Statute, and from Iraq, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Somalia, Turkey and Yemen, States not Parties to the Statute.
In her remarks, President Intelmann recalled the leading role played by Middle Eastern and Northern African States. In response to calls for the universality of the Rome Statute made by the participants, President Intelmann stated:
"I am grateful for the recognition to the Rome Statute from parliamentarians and civil society from Arab countries, and for reminding their region of the continued relevance and necessity of this independent and permanent international criminal court which the international community established in 1998. I hope your efforts are soon transformed in steady ratifications to the Rome Statute from the region."
During the discussions, the President of the Assembly explained the basic features of the Court, especially its limited jurisdiction in States not Parties to the Statute. President Intelmann called on parliamentarians to ratify the Rome Statute and to work in parallel to promote the principle of complementarity, including through the incorporation into the domestic legislation of the crimes defined in the Rome Statute.