South Africa’s announcement Friday that it is leaving the ICC surprised many, raising questions about its legality and concerns for the future of a court that counted South African dissident-turned-president Nelson Mandela as a key advocate.
The United Nations confirmed receipt Friday of South Africa’s withdrawal from the ICC, effective October 19, 2017. The withdrawal makes South Africa the first state to quit the 1998 Rome Statute that established the court. The South African announcement follows a similar decision by Burundi’s leader earlier this week, while Kenya, Uganda and Namibia have been mooting similar moves. The 124-member ICC, based in The Hague, is the world’s first legal body with permanent international jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
“It’s a blow to the victims of international criminal injustice,” Allan Ngari, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, told FRANCE 24 of Pretoria’s decision. Over the phone from Johannesburg, Ngari cited concerns that the decision “may spur a domino effect” on the African continent.
South Africa’s decision follows a 2015 dispute with the ICC after Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who is accused of genocide and war crimes, was allowed to visit the country with impunity. Bashir travelled to Johannesburg for an African Union summit in June 2015.
The ICC ordered that he be held until the end of a hearing on whether he should be detained under a global arrest warrant, but South Africa allowed Bashir to leave the country.
South Africa’s High Court ruled Bashir should have been arrested to face ICC charges since Pretoria, as a signatory to the Rome Statute, was obliged to implement arrest warrants. Jacob Zuma’s government appealed to the Supreme Court in March of this year and lost, with the Supreme Court accusing the government of “disgraceful conduct”.
Pretoria made a last-ditch appeal to the Constitutional Court to overturn the ruling with that decision due next month, but has now said it will end its legal battle after Friday’s announcement that South Africa would quit the ICC altogether.
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