Online Reporter
Richard Chombe
In a very normal world justice knows no face, creed or race and justice is justice.
But in the world we live in, it is sad that Africa, which fought bloody wars against colonialism to gain independence, is still being treated as the hub of Second Class citizens of the world; a bunch of political pawns, barbarians and criminals in the eyes of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The current ICC has serious residual colonial mentality that treats African as lesser people.
Justice applied to African leaders is not the same as justice applied to Western European leaders. This is precisely the reason why Africa needs an alternative judiciary system, that fits the continent’s ambition, aspirations and jurisprudence.
Suffice it to say, the alternative judiciary system must be rooted in the ethos of the African union and its universal principles.
At the moment the ICC is losing credibility due to selectivity and political bias, with nations such as the United States and its allies imposing sanctions on the court for its investigations into Israeli officials, and several African nations threatening withdrawal in the past due to disproportionate targeting of leaders from the continent.
The ICC today suffers legitimacy crisis. It is almost a legal nullity. The public no longer trusts ICC and its judgments.
Its struggle to prosecute high-profile cases and the implications of acquittals for victim participation and compensation further contributes to the erosion of its legitimacy and public trust.
The US has sanctioned the ICC for pursuing investigations against American and allied personnel, including in Israel, while US support for the Russian President Vladmir Putin indictment versus Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu case highlights a perceived double standard.
In the past, several African nations threatened or initiated withdrawal from the Rome Statute, citing concerns that the ICC disproportionately targeted leaders from Africa.
Either Africa comes out with a completely new judiciary system or strengthens the Africa Court of Human and People’s Rights, but Africa needs to join forces with progressive thinking countries to push for this exit from ICC, as Western countries still brutally maintain hegemony on it.
Africa needs to quickly reorganise itself and act around the African Union 2017 Summit’s ICC exit strategy resolution, and here there is need for inter-continental co-operation.
In reaction to the need for an alternative judiciary system there has been formation of a very dangerous Eurocentric organisation called the Group of Friends of the International Criminal Court, some organisation floating in hogwash racist waters, to ensure that Africans do not get equal and meaningful justice.
This organisation’s idea is to expand the jurisdiction of ICC to enable it to prosecute “crimes of aggression” (what ever that terms means), but the idea is to deal with targeted people and governments. It is preconceived.
It is an clear affront, should one consider NATO’s aggression (and NATO includes some ICC members) in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen and Iran, among others.
Instead, the focus is on Africa where politicians and their parties are easy targets.
The best think ICC can do is adjust and refocus itself, but we all know how it is a little too late because it no longer has an image to protect. It no longer has neither the dignity, nor the people’s faith. It has lost all the love at the alter of Western hegemony and selective application of the law, especially when it comes to Africa and other developing countries.
To prove that ICC has lost it, the “Kampala Amendments” (Uganda) of 2010 on the Rome Statute of Aggression, was ratified by only 47 out of 125 countries. That shows great unpopularity.
Everyone knows that the ICC is losing popularity and dignity because its execution of duties pursues the Western agenda and leaders targeted by the West are immediate candidates of the court.
That politicisation is what has brought ICC to its knees. It has fast become a platform for pursuing Western agenda as the expense of judicial universality.
The court is seen as prosecuting politically isolated leaders while avoiding those backed by major powers, undermining its goal of universal legal accountability, according to Opinio Juris.
The ICC’s actions provoke backlash from powerful states, making enforcement of its decisions difficult, and raising questions about the consistency and universality of international law.
Its inherently political nature, co-existing with its legal obligations, can lead to a perceived departure from impartiality when dealing with sensitive political realities.
The loss of compensation and emotional stress for victims who actively participate in trials, only for the defendants to be acquitted, adds to the court’s challenges and damages its reputation in the eyes of victims, according to www.fau.eu.
In the final analysis, the ICC no longer has the trust of anyone sane. Africa must therefore speed up the formation of alternative judiciary systems so that justice if delivered without compromise.
African will not develop at the best rate until its legal systems are linked to its vision and agenda.
The ICC’s time is over. Its time is past. Let us dismantle it. Letit collapse like a deck of cards. It has failed Africa and the developing world. The time for Africa to act is now.
Richard Chombe is a professor of Political Science and International Relations. Here he writes for the Belgian ThinkTank
