President El-Sisi Receives Presidents of African Constitutional and Supreme Courts

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi received today the presidents of African constitutional and supreme courts participating in the Fifth High Level Meeting for the Chief Justices and Presidents of the African Constitutional and Supreme Courts and Constitutional Councils, in the presence of President of the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) Justice Said Marie Amr and Vice-President of the Supreme Constitutional Court Justice Dr. Adel Omar Sherif.

The Spokesman for the Egyptian Presidency stated that the President welcomed the chief justices and presidents of African courts. President El-Sisi stressed Egypt's keenness to organize this meeting periodically in order to support the role of the judiciary in African societies and reflect a deep appreciation for the importance of the role of the constitutional and supreme courts in Egypt and various African countries.

The President further affirmed that the current stage requires the African judiciary to play an influential role in promoting coordination among African countries toward creating a unified and homogeneous legislative environment. This would, therefore, help deal with the international challenges facing the process of formulating a common future for the African continent.

Furthermore, the President asserted that judicial efforts have become of particular importance in light of the traditional development challenges, chief among them is the phenomenon of terrorism, as well as the challenges of a special nature faced by developing countries, foremost of which are African countries, in a post Covid-19 world.

President El-Sisi indicated that a harmonious judicial strategy would establish a legal consensus contributing to improving the role of African states and societies in dealing with these challenges.

For his part, Justice Said Marie emphasized that it was a great honor to have this conference held under the auspices of President El-Sisi, particularly as it would bring a vital and tangible impact in strengthening judicial cooperation at the continental level and promoting its effective role in combating terrorism and achieving development.

This can be attained through forming a continental system for judges, launching an electronic platform containing countries’ constitutions and the constitutional provisions issued in each country, and providing a space for dialogue among those courts to exchange experiences.

The Spokesman added that the participants expressed their honor to meet President El-Sisi, praising the vital role of this meeting in enhancing judicial cooperation between the African constitutional courts.

This has become an important annual meeting convened at the continental level, reflecting Egypt's firm stance toward Africa, a focal point of its policy, the Spokesman said.

During the meeting, an open dialogue with the President was held. It included the most important issues on the African arena, foremost of which is the fight against terrorism across Africa for it threatens stability.

In this context, the President emphasized the vital role played by judicial institutions to combat terrorism as well as extremist ideology and create legal frameworks to deal with this threat due to its devastating impact.

His Excellency stressed, in this regard, Egypt's vision over the past years to overcome this challenge. Its vision was not based only on dealing with terrorism from its security, intellectual and religious aspects, but also on devoting attention, at the same time, to building and reconstruction, strengthening infrastructure, improving economic and social conditions, and maximizing the rule of law and the role of the judiciary.

In the same vein, President El-Sisi stressed Egypt’s willingness to support African countries suffering from the scourge of terrorism.

For its moral and religious responsibility toward these countries, Egypt has to harness its potentials to help them in their plight.

Moreover, serving as a beacon of moderate Islam in the world, Egypt plays a pivotal role in foiling attempts to offend Islam with those terrorist crimes. Such crimes negatively affect the status of Islam and destabilize religious concepts among peoples in general and youth in particular.