Reposted from Lawfare Tyranny June 22, 2015
In decades past, African tour operators would help European
and American clients to bag what they termed “The Big Five”: the African
elephant, Black rhinoceros, Cape buffalo, Lion and Leopard — the most dangerous
and difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot.
Today, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is engaged in
a similar enterprise, trying to “bag” African heads of state and political
figures in high places.
The hunt for Africans was spotlighted again in the week of
June 14, 2015 after the High Court in Pretoria issued a provisional court order
Sunday meant to block Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir from leaving South
Africa where he had travelled to attend the Summit of the African Union (AU).
The ruling by the South African court was predicated upon a 2009 arrest warrant
issued for President Bashir by the ICC which has accused him of genocide,
crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Despite the High Court’s ruling, President Bashir left South
Africa the following day, giving no credence to the ICC warrant, or any
attempts by the South African courts to enforce it.
Responding to Bashir’s disregard for the ICC’s warrant and
leaving South Africa, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters that the
authority of the ICC must be respected and its decision implemented — a breathtakingly
absurd statement given the fact that three permanent Security Council members
(the United States, Russia and China) have yet
to sign on to, or ratify, the Rome Statute.
This lopsided approach to international justice has given
the AU member states a pretext
to refuse to cooperate with the ICC. At an AU summit held in October of
2013 the organization decided that it would fight the ICC and called upon its
members to withdraw from the Rome Statute.
Even non-African observers have criticized the case brought
by the former chief prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo.
As Tufts University professor and World Peace Foundation
Executive Director Alex de Waal wrote
in 2009:
The flaws in the Prosecutor’s case are such that it is
necessary to ask whether he ever expects it to come to court, or whether he
prefers a contest in the court of international public opinion. The flaws are
such that the Pre-Trial Chamber should send it back to the Office of the
Prosecutor for comprehensive reconsideration.
De Waal goes on to add:
There are strong reasons to suppose that pursuing a case
against President Bashir is not in the interests of justice.
De Wall does not argue that Bashir has committed no crimes,
but sees problems inherent in Ocampo’s approach to the matter and concludes:
It is remarkable that, given the wealth of evidence
available and number of accessible and attractive options for prosecuting those
suspected of responsibility for crimes in Darfur, including President Bashir,
the Prosecutor should seek the most controversial and hardest-to-substantiate
charges. The principal benefit of this approach is that it gains the maximum
publicity for the Prosecutor and places him at the centre of a major
international controversy. On the international stage, Moreno Ocampo appears as
the champion of justice while his opponent, the head of a widely-reviled state,
has few credible advocates ready to speak out on his behalf. A trial of sorts
is already being conducted in the court of international public opinion. This
perhaps is where the Prosecutor feels most comfortable.
So the West wags its collective finger at Africa as it
attempts to haul African heads of state into a global criminal court they would
never allow themselves or their allies to be dragged before.
This state of affairs begs the question: Does the ICC deem
only the leaders of Africa to be a danger to world peace and human dignity?
That is certainly the impression with which influential
nations both in and outside of the ICC leave us — and this serves to reinforce
the belief by the rest of the world that these hegemonic nation-states are
incapable of fairness and devoid of any sense of justice.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn stated it very
clearly when he said the ICC system is flawed and unequal and is conducting
itself in such a manner that the process has now “degenerated to some kind of
race hunting.”
Today, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is engaged in
a similar enterprise, trying to “bag” African heads of state and political
figures in high places.
The hunt for Africans was spotlighted again in the week of
June 14, 2015 after the High Court in Pretoria issued a provisional court order
Sunday meant to block Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir from leaving South
Africa where he had travelled to attend the Summit of the African Union (AU).
The ruling by the South African court was predicated upon a 2009 arrest warrant
issued for President Bashir by the ICC which has accused him of genocide,
crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Despite the High Court’s ruling, President Bashir left South
Africa the following day, giving no credence to the ICC warrant, or any
attempts by the South African courts to enforce it.
Responding to Bashir’s disregard for the ICC’s warrant and
leaving South Africa, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters that the
authority of the ICC must be respected and its decision implemented — a breathtakingly
absurd statement given the fact that three permanent Security Council members
(the United States, Russia and China) have yet
to sign on to, or ratify, the Rome Statute.
This lopsided approach to international justice has given
the AU member states a pretext
to refuse to cooperate with the ICC. At an AU summit held in October of
2013 the organization decided that it would fight the ICC and called upon its
members to withdraw from the Rome Statute.
Even non-African observers have criticized the case brought
by the former chief prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo.
As Tufts University professor and World Peace Foundation
Executive Director Alex de Waal wrote
in 2009:
The flaws in the Prosecutor’s case are such that it is
necessary to ask whether he ever expects it to come to court, or whether he
prefers a contest in the court of international public opinion. The flaws are
such that the Pre-Trial Chamber should send it back to the Office of the
Prosecutor for comprehensive reconsideration.
De Waal goes on to add:
There are strong reasons to suppose that pursuing a case
against President Bashir is not in the interests of justice.
De Wall does not argue that Bashir has committed no crimes,
but sees problems inherent in Ocampo’s approach to the matter and concludes:
It is remarkable that, given the wealth of evidence
available and number of accessible and attractive options for prosecuting those
suspected of responsibility for crimes in Darfur, including President Bashir,
the Prosecutor should seek the most controversial and hardest-to-substantiate
charges. The principal benefit of this approach is that it gains the maximum
publicity for the Prosecutor and places him at the centre of a major
international controversy. On the international stage, Moreno Ocampo appears as
the champion of justice while his opponent, the head of a widely-reviled state,
has few credible advocates ready to speak out on his behalf. A trial of sorts
is already being conducted in the court of international public opinion. This
perhaps is where the Prosecutor feels most comfortable.
So the West wags its collective finger at Africa as it
attempts to haul African heads of state into a global criminal court they would
never allow themselves or their allies to be dragged before.
This state of affairs begs the question: Does the ICC deem
only the leaders of Africa to be a danger to world peace and human dignity?
That is certainly the impression with which influential
nations both in and outside of the ICC leave us — and this serves to reinforce
the belief by the rest of the world that these hegemonic nation-states are
incapable of fairness and devoid of any sense of justice.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn stated it very
clearly when he said the ICC system is flawed and unequal and is conducting
itself in such a manner that the process has now “degenerated to some kind of
race hunting.”
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