We view with grave concern, the emerging scenario which suggests that some African countries are increasingly tempted to pull out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague over allegations that the Court appears to target African and Third World leaders for sanctions while playing blind, deaf and dumb to their colleagues from the developed world who have allegedly committed similar or worse offences.
South Africa is the third country, after Burundi and The Gambia, to signal its intention to quit the Court. ADVERTISING inRead invented by Teads A recent statement by the African Group for Justice and Accountability (ACJA), signed by Dapo Akande, a Professor of International Law at the University of Oxford; Nigerian lawyer, Mr Femi Falana SAN; former Prosecutor at the ICC Tribunal for Rwanda, Mr Babacar Jallow and the Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations at the Court, Mr Richard Gladstone, expressed worry that this trend, if it continues, will mitigate against efforts to bring perpetrators of mass atrocities to account.
“They (deserters) close an important recourse to justice and undermine the global fight against impunity.
All efforts should be deployed to encourage states to remain members of the ICC and resolve their concerns within the Rome Statute system”, the statement averred.
The Rome Statute, which came into force in 2002, binds the 124-member states which signed the ICC instrument to uphold the jurisdiction of the Court to bring people to account on such heinous crimes as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other crimes.
So far, former African heads of state, Charles Taylor of Liberia; former Ivory Coast President, Laurent Gbagbo and former President of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, as well as some warlords of African countries, have either been arraigned or summoned over allegations of committing these crimes.
Though the perceived racial “bias” appears to hold water in some quarters, we believe that withdrawing from the ICC is not the appropriate response to it. People with genuine cases should table them for internal resolution.
We cannot afford to go back to the past when leaders in some countries, capitalising on the sovereignty factor, felt free to subject their citizens to crimes against humanity, often in vainglorious efforts to perpetuate themselves and their families in power.
We salute the courage of progressive African countries, such as Botswana and Senegal, which have openly spoken out against the mass desertion of the ICC by African countries.
In any case, the United Nations still reserves the authority to order the ICC to take up cases against leaders of non-ICC signatory states found culpable for crimes against humanity in their countries. African nations must endeavour to portray themselves as countries in good standing in the global community rather than pariahs.
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