There is a growing criticism about the actions of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) regarding Africa. Many are of the view that the international body may have been set up only to take on Africa, asserting that the actions of the agency appear unfair to the African continent, adding that the ICC is discriminating in its selection practices.
ICC portrays itself as an non-political institution that will take action irrespective of their targets’ nationality or political position. However, many people, especially African leaders look at the ICC’s caseload and wonder why, if that is the case, its only prosecutions have been of African nationals. It is widely believed that ICC is another way in which the Post-colonial West is establishing a neocolonial relationship with Africa in which Western countries, particularly those in Europe, through the use of conditional support and military humanitarian intervention, maintain authority over their former colonies. ICC is perceived of as an institution modeled on European principles and administered by a global elite inculcated in Western values and trained in the Western mode.
Acording to a Nigerian Vanguard report, many are of the view that the ICC actions appear inappropriately unfair to Africa, otherwise, it should provide sound reasons and justification for why all of the situations currently under investigation or prosecution happen to be in Africa. Although the agency’s investigations into African situations were opened at the request or with the support of African states and or self-referred, critics still maintained the agency is biased in its actions.
Omar Al-Bashir
Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan
Bashir, the Sudanese leader who came to power in 1989, became the first sitting president to be indicted by the ICC. The court issued an arrest warrant for him on March 4, 2009, for war crimes committed during the civil war in Darfur before the referendum that divided Sudan and South Sudan.
Bashir was attending African Union talks in South Africa when a local court issued an interim order stopping him from leaving the country until it hears application for his arrest.
He is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes.
He reportedly defied the court order and left South Africa despite two pending warrants from the international criminal court for his arrest, following which a high court in Johannesburg mandated the South African government to file an affidavit explaining how president Bashir left the country.
Notably, President Bashir was in South Africa at the invitation of the AU, which does not have sanctions over him and arresting him would amount to weakening and dividing the AU.
Meanwhile many have condemned Botswana government for saying that Bashir should be arrested and handed over to the ICC, asking why the ICC is unfairly targeting black presidents and no one has been arrested for war crimes in Iraq and so on.
Bashir had travelled to South Africa for an African Union summit chaired by Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, who has urged African leaders to pull out of the ICC.
However, the Sudanese officials reportedly stated that the court order had no value because Bashir was invited by the South African government, saying that claim that the South African government has shamefully flouted ICC and domestic court to free man wanted for mass murder of Africans, is inconsequential.
According to this forum, the ICC is believed to be a part of a European-imposed and implemented international human rights project which has a particular focus on Europe’s African colonies. The perception of the ICC as a European institution biased against Africa is predicated upon (a) the ICC’s embededness in the international human rights system, which is perceived by some to be a Western imposition, (b) European verbal and fiscal support for the Court, (d) Europe’s heightened, paternalistic sense of responsibility towards Africa, particularly in the areas of economics and human rights violations, which has been fostered by its identity as a former colonizer and its mistakes in the region after decolonization, and (e) Europe’s perception and presentation of itself as a normative model for the international community, in whose recreation it can instruct others, which implies a sense of European superiority and conjures the specter of Europe attempting to remake Africa in its own image.
