Is ICC really targeting Africans?

The true basis for this assertion is that the court has exclusively working on African cases. Thus far, the court is trying a number of cases from Africa based on the referral of the situation to the OTP by individual governments from Africa, UNSC referral, and self-initiated intervention by the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor. This work of the court focusing on African nationals is not because of the court’s intention to prosecute Africans, it is rather because of the real situations that happened, and are still happening on the continent. This does not mean that similar situations have not happened on other continents, but they failed to meet the requirements to proceed in the course of examination of the gravity of the situation by the prosecutor. This created a distorted perception amongst African Governments regarding the underlying intention behind the establishment of the court.

Africans are also accusing the court that it is selective justice and raise a question that “why there are no cases from outside the African continent before the court?” However, the statute, under article 53(2), provides that the prosecutor should not initiate an investigation unless there is a “reasonable basis” to proceed. Thus, the prosecutor will proceed after examining the gravity of the situation brought into his/her intention. As a result, the cases from African continent met the requirement to proceed with them. This does not reasonably lead to concluding that the ICC is targeting Africans. Additionally, while in light of the fact that African countries have voluntarily signed the treaty to be subject of the court’s jurisdiction, it is impossible to conclude that the ICC is established solely to prosecute African cases and targeting Africans.