The project “Information & ratification campaign on the ICC in Russia, Turkey and Central Asian Countries” aims to support the implementation of the EU Common Position on the International Criminal Court (ICC) by focusing on promoting the universality of the Rome Statute, implementing the principle of complementarity and enhancing public perception and awareness. It is a 24 month programme implemented in Russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

The specific objectives are:

• to reach the present decision makers of the target countries, and initiate co-operation between them
• to strengthen the basis for networking and co-operation between the countries involved, by training of future decision makers
• to design and implement a training programme to qualify multipliers selected from all target countries
• to support and coach these multipliers to implement seminars, round-tables, lectures and PR-activites in their home countries
• to elaborate specific (and easy to reproduce) training and information material in local languages
• to raise awareness of the ICC among concerned field actors, in particular the armed forces and law-enforcement authorities
• to enhance public perception and awareness of the ICC through local civil society representatives (incl. NGO, universities etc.) and local media
• to accelerate the ratification and implementation process of the Rome Statute
• to support legal experts in drafting implementing legislation, enabling national authorities to try suspects of international crimes before their own courts and ensuring an effective co-operation of national justice systems with the International Criminal Court
• to strengthen the role of the grass roots movement and major parts of the executive branch in promoting human rights and ending impunity for war criminals by assisting the work of the ICC

40 experts (20 armed forces, 20 civil society) selected from the target countries will be qualified as multipliers and will implement –coached and supported by EU experts- a training programme with approximately 50 seminars, round-tables and lectures for over 1.000 participants in their home countries.

To bring key decision-makers of the target countries together, so-called “High Level Meetings” will be organised to inform them about how the ICC works, and to report to them that the ICC constitutes an international court that functions and most importantly to lay out the necessities for ratification and implementation of the Rome Statute of the ICC into national legislation.

To strengthen the basis for networking and co-operation between the countries involved, up to 10 future decision makers (junior professionals from ministries and educational institutions) will have the opportunity to participate in an ICC research group of the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg Germany.

200 media representatives (TV, radio, print media) from the target countries will attend press conferences and specific media-briefings, which will enhance public perception and awareness of the ICC in general and on local ICC initiatives in particular.