South Africa to withdraw from ICC
ANC spokesperson Obed Bapela has announced that, “The ICC (the International Criminal Court) has lost its direction unfortunately and is no longer pursuing that principle of an instrument that is fair for everybody.”
South Africa was recently at odds with the ICC when it refused to arrest Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir during an AU summit in South Africa.
The ANC made it clear they were not going to use the AU as a platform to arrest leaders. If this move begins to have a snowball effect and other African countries follow suit, it would bring the ICC to its knees. The ICC’s record is flawed and it lacks credibility in Africa. Its application of law is selective and seemingly targeted towards African and Arab leaders.
However, the existing alternative, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Arusha, Tanzania, is also riddled with problems.
The court was established 11 years ago with the objective of making judgments on AU states’ compliance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Thus far, it has been unable to dispense any form of justice. The charter, which was entered into force in 2004, has only 27 signatories out of the 54 member states of the AU. So, half of the AU member states have not ratified and are not party to the charter.
What does this say about the commitment of African leaders to finding an African solution to an African problem, which they claimed this court would do?
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