The Attorney General concludes the activities of the International Conference of Public Prosecution Agencies and Public Prosecution Bodies

Yesterday, Tuesday, the ninth of this month, Counselor Hamada Al-Sawy, Attorney General of the Arab Republic of Egypt and President of the Association of African Public Representatives, chaired the annual general assembly meeting of the Association of African Public Representatives at the conclusion of the activities of the International Conference of Public Prosecution Agencies and Public Prosecution Bodies on Combating Transnational Crime. His Excellency authorized the Secretary-General of the Assembly from the State of Mozambique to manage the session, in the presence of the Representatives-General, members of the Assembly.
The meeting began with a speech delivered by the Counselor, Attorney General, President of the Assembly. At the beginning, His Excellency congratulated the attendees on the success of this conference and the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the Arab and African Public Representatives Associations as the beginning of deep relations between them. He also thanked the attendees for participating in the conference’s activities and for their contributions to its sessions, and expressed His Eminence also expressed his happiness at meeting the attendees, looking forward to an unprecedented coming period in the dear African continent.
His Excellency referred to the harvest of the association’s activity during its presidency of the Egyptian Public Prosecution, as it was elected president of the association for a two-year term in accordance with its statute in October 2018 during the activities of the thirteenth annual general meeting of the Association of African Public Representatives, held in Mauritius. His Excellency mentioned the members Executive Committee of the Association, adding that during the year 2019 the annual meeting of the Association was held in Rwanda.
His Excellency also indicated that the Egyptian Public Prosecution was keen to chair all four meetings of the Association’s Executive Committee during the year 2019, which came to form a platform for opening channels of dialogue, exchanging and understanding experiences and good practices. To activate ways of cooperation and achieve greater success in its tasks, and its deliberations and discussions were consistent with the basic principles of criminal justice administration and the association’s bylaws.
His Excellency pointed out that the emergence of the Corona pandemic in 2020 had affected the entire world and the beloved African continent, and this cast a shadow on the activities of the Association, and made it difficult for the Association to carry out its mission of enhancing cooperation between prosecution bodies in our African countries, and that despite this, the Presidency of the Association was able to hold the committee meeting. Executive Committee through remote video conference technology on June 1, 2021, in a first in the association’s activities. Due to the challenges of the Corona pandemic, which imposed many restrictions on holding meetings.
His Excellency explained the activities that took place during the years 2020 and 2021 under the umbrella of the association. Several training courses were held with the support of some international organizations, especially the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the International Organization for Migration. His Excellency mentioned the most prominent activities, which were holding two workshops via remote video conference technology under the title: “A workshop for members of the Public Prosecution to combat “Crimes Related to Migration and Other Transnational Organized Crimes” during the month of December 2020, and the other in June 2021 in partnership with the International Organization for Migration. Twenty members of the Public Prosecution participated in the symposium activities, representing a number of African countries, including: Angola and Egypt. Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia. In addition to holding another workshop in the field of combating human trafficking crimes, which came in cooperation between the Egyptian Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution and Peacekeeping during the month of March 2020, Rwanda, Mozambique, and Zambia participated in the workshop’s activities as member states of the Association of African Public Representatives. In addition to holding a symposium in Pretoria, South Africa, during the period from the fourth to the sixth of February 2020, under the title “Combat Transnational Crimes and Strengthening Mechanisms for Confiscating Assets Obtained from Crimes,” in coordination with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and its regional office in South Africa. This symposium was attended by Representatives from the Public Prosecution Office in the countries of: Zambia, Lesotho, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa, Namibia, Morocco, Senegal, Mozambique, Uganda, Rwanda, Mauritius, Botswana, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, in addition to the Arab Republic of Egypt.
His Excellency concluded his mention of the association’s activities by representing the association in the side meeting held on the sidelines of the meetings of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime in October 2020, which dealt with issues of illicit financial flows in the sub-Saharan region of the African continent, in conjunction with Judge / Shamila Batuhi, Attorney General of South Africa, as well as Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
His Excellency also explained that the Egyptian Public Prosecution, during its presidency of the association in the previous period, spared no effort in the field of cooperation agreements, and conducted several negotiations with the aim of signing memorandums of understanding with international and regional organizations working in the legal field and in combating crime. His Excellency indicated that those negotiations had resulted in the signing of Memorandum of Understanding with the International Organization for Migration in 2019, which resulted in several training programs and workshops for member states to provide a platform for the exchange of experiences and good practices between African prosecutors, as well as the signing of another bilateral Memorandum of Understanding yesterday with the Association of Arab Public Representatives; To open new horizons for the association with other countries in the region, and to participate in activities with counterpart parties in other countries that have similar challenges, which contributes to exchanging good practices in the investigation and collection of forensic evidence that aims to reach members of the National Assembly.