The Arab Human Rights Program of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences, Siracusa, Italy

Abstract

The Institute is a not-for-profit international educational foundation established by presidential decree under Italian law. It is under the scientific auspices of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences and is funded by a public law of the Region of Sicily, and by the Province, City and Chamber of Commerce of Siracusa. The Institute is devoted to the multidisciplinary study of the criminal sciences in their broadest meaning. Since its inception in 1972, it has conducted some 117 conferences, seminars, and meetings of experts on diverse topics with a total participation of more than 5,800 jurists from seventy-nine countries. Most of the participants were members of the law faculties from 225 universities. The Institute's activities have been published in sixty-nine volumes with several volumes in the course of publication. The Institute enjoys the status of a United Nations nongovernmental organization in consultative status category II, and that of a nongovernmental organization accredited to the Council of Europe. Since 1985, the Institute has embarked on a series of programs conducted in Arabic for jurists from the Arab world. These programs deal with criminal justice, human rights, and human rights education. By July 1980 there were five seminars on teaching human rights, two committee meetings of experts, one conference, three conferences conducted in Cairo, Egypt, and the first of three summer post-graduate courses for doctoral candidates. The human rights education seminars were attended by professors from every Arab law school, as well as by a number of jurists who are not directly involved in legal education, but who teach in judicial training institutes, police academies, and military justice programs. In addition, some of the