Africa and the International Criminal Court by Hope Coulter

Source: dw.com

On October 26th, Gambia became the third country to leave the International Criminal Court this week when it formally began the process of withdrawing from what the country’s Minister of Information, Sheriff Bojang, has called the “International Caucasian Court”. Gambia follows in the footsteps of South Africa and Burundi, who have also accused the court of discrimination against African countries. These states are the first to ever have withdrawn from the International Criminal Court, and disapproving global leaders worry that it will spark a mass exodus of African states, which could diminish the Court’s credibility and effectiveness.

The operation of the International Criminal Court is based on the Rome Statute, an international treaty adopted in 1998. Tensions among African nations over the International Criminal Court came to a head in 2015 when South Africa hesitated to arrest Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, who had been convicted by the Court of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Following this incident, South Africa, initially a supporter of the Court, stated that the Rome Statute conflicts with its obligations to members of the African Union, and with its laws regarding diplomatic immunity.

While supporters of the withdrawals are refreshed to see African nations standing up to Western imperialism (all 39 persons convicted by the court since its creation have been from African nations), critics worry that the move is a step backward in ending the devastating genocide and war crimes that have occurred, and are still occurring, in Africa. GenocideWatch.net has issued a Genocide Emergency or Genocide Watch warning for the states of Burundi, the Central African Republic, Nigeria, Somalia, and Sudan.

Disagreement exists among African Union states about the idea of withdrawal. Botswana’s foreign minister Pelomoni Venson-Moitoi, a candidate to become the next African Union chief, urged African states to reform the Court instead of abandoning it. Meanwhile Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, has said that the African Union should set up its own Criminal Court to demand reparations from the West for war crimes and crimes against humanity inflicted by Western nations, particularly during the colonial era.

The International Criminal Court has urged countries to discuss their discontent within the Court’s Assembly of State Parties, and has pointed out that preliminary investigations are currently taking place in six non-African countries.

(DailySabah.com, Huffingtonpost.com, GenocideWatch.net, ICC-CPI.int, Mgafrica.com, Theguardian.com, BBC.com, Thinkprogress.org, Foxnews.com, Reuters.com)