ICC asks South Africa, Burundi to reconsider withdrawal

THE International Criminal Court (ICC) has asked South Africa and Burundi to reconsider their decisions to withdraw from the troubled institution set up to try the world’s worst crimes.

“Although withdrawing from a treaty is a sovereign act, I regret these decisions and invite South Africa and Burundi to reconsider their positions,” president of the assembly of state parties to the ICC founding treaty Sidiki Kaba said.

“I urge them to work together with other states in the fight against impunity, which often causes massive violations of human rights,” Kaba said.

The statement came a day after South Africa dealt a major blow to the court by announcing it would withdraw from the ICC.

The announcement followed a dispute last year when Sudanese President Omar alBashir visited the country despite being the subject of an ICC arrest warrant over alleged war crimes.

Earlier this month, Burundi said it would leave the court, while Namibia and Kenya have also raised this possibility.

The ICC, set up in 2002, is often accused of bias against Africa and has also struggled with a lack of cooperation, including from the US which has signed the court’s treaty but never ratified it.

Kaba said he was concerned that South Africa and Burundi’s decisions would pave the way for other African states to leave the court, which is tasked with “prosecuting the most serious crimes that shock the conscience of humanity, namely genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression”.

The ICC on Saturday confirmed South Africa had officially notified the court of its decision to leave, adding that the move had come in the wake of Burundi’s withdrawal process.

● South Africa’s exit from the ICC is a “clear step towards a dictatorship” that will expose children to war crimes in South Africa without recourse to a higher court‚ COPE said.

“The Zuma government is doing this shameful thing just to defend fugitive of justice Omar al-Bashir,” COPE added‚ calling the decision disturbing.

“This government’s determination to pull out of the ICC does not come as a surprise to us because we know it is led by an individual who is doing everything in his power to escape the clutches of the law by manipulating the criminal justice system. That is why this individual does immoral acts only in the best interests of a president who is guilty of war crimes in Sudan as the saying goes, ‘Birds of a feather flock together’. — AFPTMG Digital