Arabic Lexsitus Team Celebrates Landmark Achievement in International Criminal Law Translation

Cairo, 17 February 2023

The Arabic Lexsitus Team has announced the successful completion of the Arabic translation of the Lexsitus Commentary on the Law of the International Criminal Court (CLICC), marking a pivotal moment for international criminal law (ICL). The announcement came during a webinar, designed for language professionals and introduced by Hazem Al-Bihwashy, a renowned media professional from Radio Misr.

The event began with playing a video statement by Karim A. A. Khan KC, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), who introduced Lexsitus 2.0, now available in Arabic. Khan encouraged legal professionals to take full advantage of this extensive resource, noting its value for scholars, practitioners, and students of international criminal law. He also expressed hope that Lexsitus would continue to expand into additional languages beyond English, Arabic, French, and Persian.

Fathi M. A. Ahmed, the Arabic translation team leader at CILRAP and head of the CLICC Arabic translation team, emphasized the importance of the project. He explained that the webinar aimed to reflect on lessons learned throughout the translation process and to celebrate the collective efforts of the team. Ahmed thanked his colleagues — Gamal Abdelazim (Copy-preparer and Proofreader), Maisa M. Fathi (Translator), Hagar M. Khalil (Translator), Sara I. Sanad (Translator), and Yasmine O. Shaalan (Translator)—for their dedication to completing the project.

In a significant part of the event, each team member had the opportunity to speak about their individual contributions. They explained their specific roles, from translation to proofreading, and shared insights into the challenges they faced. The session included a Q&A part, where the team responded to questions from the audience, who expressed admiration for the project’s scope and impact.

He also elaborated on the challenges faced by the translation team, which included managing tight deadlines, handling the volume of text, and working with a limited budget. The team had to establish translation standards to ensure accuracy, while resolving conflicting official translations of ICC basic texts. The involvement of subject matter experts (SMEs) headed by Professor Mohamed S.E.A. Badar was crucial in maintaining the high quality of the translations.

The project utilized AI-supported technology, with the team employing a Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tool to streamline their workflow and ensure consistency. A specially trained machine translation engine allowed the team to process large amounts of text without sacrificing quality. Alongside this, the team developed a termbase of 6,329 terms, which included newly coined terminology and terms from official Arabic versions of ICC texts.

Ahmed also announced that a report would be submitted to the ICC detailing issues found in the official Arabic translation of the Rome Statute, emphasizing the need for continued improvements. The CLICC translation standards were stringent, ensuring consistency in terminology, linguistic accuracy, and adherence to the source text. The process involved multiple stages, from translation and proofreading to final reviews and input from subject-matter experts, before the commentary was published.

This successful completion of the Arabic translation is a significant achievement, expanding access to international criminal law resources for Arabic-speaking communities. The project, which combined cutting-edge AI technology with expert human translation, sets a new standard for making global legal resources more accessible.