The world’s attention will be at the African Union’s ‘extraordinary Summit’ taking place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 11th and 12th October, 2013. The position of our (African) leaders may be known from recent proposals seeking that African states withdraw from the Rome Statute or should not cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC). The choice of these proposals has been linked to an assertion that the Court is primarily targeting people from Africa.
While it is correct that African government officers are the primary ones to use the ICC, we must not forget that six African Union member states such as the Central African Republic, CoteDi’voire, Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Kenya (through an international commission established by the Kenya government) in the last nine years, have asked the ICC to investigate and prosecute international crimes committed in their countries while the ICC intervention in Sudan and Libya came as a result of the United Nations Security Council (with African states in the council) referrals. To a large extent, I can respectfully submit here that African government believed in ICC and called for its intervention in our dear continent based on Africa’s 34 state parties and 43 signatories to the Statute.
The administration of criminal justice at local and international law provides for the doctrine of natural justice where the ‘accused’ will have his day in court to enter his defence against the evidence of the prosecution. The prosecution must proof his case beyond a reasonable doubt. If he fails to do so, a court cannot convict the accused. Any one still appearing before the ICC at the moment is innocent. I think where our leaders should be worried or show interest is whether or not the ICC is demonstrating fairness and Independence in conducting its trails; rather than counting the number of cases before the court per region. Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.
At the summit, we have to be careful not to take a step backward from our collective commitment with ICC to deal with the gravest crimes like, genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crime of aggression. We should not signal our fellow Africans that a rapist can now ask the victim for an understanding. Justice is not only for the plaintiff but also for the defendant. In the face of the changing nature of global security, if the violators of human rights have been escaping from justice, this is the time for us in Africa to say they can no longer hide. Everyone has the right to go to heaven the way he wants but he needs not drag others along. A decision that will shut the door of justice against millions of innocent women, children and men -victims of violent conflict will be the undoing of Africa as it will continue to make life nasty, brutish and short.
Africa’s decision to expand the frontiers of rule of law and accountability through the ICC and Rome Statute system is commendable. The continent has already set an example for other states to follow. Every supporter of human rights, rule of law and justice globally needs to join the new train of making the ICC a truly global court by asking other states left to join the Treaty. African leaders should be interested ICC independence and fairness to accused persons from Africa and other part of the world, not the number of cases before the court from the continent. As our leaders meet next week, we must not speak for proposals for African states to pull out of the ICC or withdraw from the Rome Statute.
This article is written by Adeola Austin Oyinlade. Mr. Oyinlade is a lawyer, human rights expert and President of the Constitutional Rights Awareness and Liberty Initiative from Lagos, Nigeria. His twitter handle is @AdeolaOyinlade
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