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Comment on the Withdrawal Question: “In recent weeks, the governments of the Republic of Burundi, the Republic of South Africa, and the Islamic Republic of the Gambia have announced their intention to withdraw from the ICC. How will this affect the emerging system of international criminal justice in the short and long term? What steps might be taken to strengthen that project?”

pgsojo
4990
November 15, 2016
12:37 pm

Outreach Campaign and More Aggressive Prosecution Outside of Africa

Summary

Prevention for loss of credibility of the ICC should be addressed by formulating a mind changing campaign and also by initiating more prosecutions in other regions of the world.

Argument

The International Criminal Court is meant to uphold justice in the signatory countries. It covers serious cases such as genocide and crimes against humanity. In the past few weeks, three African countries among them Burundi, South Africa, and Gambia have announced their decision to leave the Court. South Africa opted for withdrawal after being on the receiving end of global condemnation after allowing President Al-Bashir of Sudan to leave the country even though he had a warrant for arrest. Burundi opted to do so after government officials suggested that the Court was a tool for western nations to target Africans. Gambia, on the other hand, stated that the Court neglected to prosecute European countries after the death of immigrants going to the continent and Tony Blair for his role in the Iraq war. To prevent massive withdrawal from the ICC, the Court should invest in campaigns and investigate cases properly so as to improve its credibility since withdrawal will lead to the lack of political accountability among nations of the world.

Recently, there has been a campaign by the African Union to encourage states parties to pull out of the Court as they feel they are being targeted. It is speculated that the Court only seeks to go after African presidents and other prominent figures while it steers clear of other continents and powerful countries.1 Only recently have investigations in Georgia and Afghanistan been opened showing the monopoly. The Court must try and show that that is not the case and persuade the withdrawing countries that it is in their best interest to stay.

The ICC should launch a campaign, meant to change the minds of those leaders too. The mass exit is caused by the countries being disillusioned and feeling as though the Court is a political tool by the West rather than a means to promote international justice. With the withdrawals, the Court will lose credibility amongst the remaining countries, which will result in them opting out and the eventual disbandment of the Court altogether.2 Another move that it can take is being serious in the cases it has and invest enough resources in the investigations, which will provide evidence or otherwise of the accused. By so doing, the Court will be more severe and determined in its quest for justice, which will go a long way in convincing other countries to stay and the ones opting to leave to reconsider their decision.

Withdrawal from the Court will eventually have some consequences in the long run for the three countries that are opting for it. Firstly, the government officials will have no one to answer to for their wrongdoings. Given the volatile nature of the developing countries, especially during the election periods, it will cause impunity amongst the leaders who know they will not be held accountable.3 The justice systems in these countries are corrupt to some degree; hence, the victims of such atrocities will not face justice. For a country such as Burundi, which was recently involved in considerable violence after the attempted coup,4 there will be further fears of future crimes against humanity. South Africa will also be seen as non-cooperative with the international community as it opted for this route after failing to arrest the Sudanese President. Another consequence is that the international community will be very hesitant to help in such scenarios, as it will seem they put themselves in the situation. The Court being an international body will not have any mandate to lend a hand should such a case become a reality.

Overall, it must be said that the ICC is a vital body in the international community as it seeks to uphold justice globally. It may have some critiques, and rightly so, about how it conducts its cases and who it goes after, but it is a section where it can improve on while clarifying its decisions. The need for withdrawing from the ICC by the three African countries is misguided and should be a cause for concern for the rest of the world in regards to the future stability of these countries. The Court should invest in campaigns and proper investigations so as to improve its credibility.

Endnotes — (click the footnote reference number, or ↩ symbol, to return to location in text).

1.
AFP, African Union members back Kenyan plan to leave ICC, The Guardian, Feb. 1 2016, available online. ↩
2.
Hannah Woolaver, International and Domestic Implications of South Africa’s Withdrawal from the ICC, EJIL Talk (Oct. 24, 2016), available online. ↩
3.
Press Release, FIDH, Reject Impunity: Don’t Withdraw from the ICC (Oct. 27, 2016), available online. ↩
4.
Burundi: Failed Coup, 52 Africa Research Bulletin 5 (2015), abstract available online. ↩

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