The world has turned its back on the Nuba people of Sudan. Despite the critical need for food, none of the organisations involved in helping people in dire need have attempted to deliver aid to them.
South Africa’s planned withdrawal from the ICC is considered a detraction from Nelson Mandela’s “inspiring legacy”.
Jim Bourg/Reuters
The ICC has made important advances by investigating cases outside Africa and completing ones that further define what is not allowed in war. South Africa’s withdrawal is concerning, but not fatal.
Omar al-Bashir (centre, blue suit) at the infamous 2015 African Union summit in Johannesburg.
EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Arguably Africa’s most powerful diplomatic player, South Africa is now backing out of the world’s most important mechanism for bringing war criminals to justice.
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir during a rally against the ICC.
Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters
The South African government’s decision to withdraw from the ICC should not be seen in isolation. The African Union has called on its member states to withdraw from the court.
Khartoum at sunset. The city’s architectural heritage is under threat.
Shutterstock
Students at the University of Khartoum are protesting about a secretive plan to move the institution from its historic buildings.
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma being welcomed on his arrival in Khartoum by Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir earlier this year.
Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
South Africa’s withdrawal from the ICC could have mere symbolic value. The country will continue to have obligations to binding decisions taken by the UN Security Council – including those pertaining to the court.
Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir addresses members of the UN Security Council in Khartoum in 2008.
Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
Omar al-Bashir’s planned trip to New York to address a summit on sustainable development at the UN General Assembly involves considerable reputational risk for the US.
South African President Jacob Zuma, right, listens to Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng ahead of Zuma’s second inauguration in Pretoria.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Tensions are probably inevitable in any constitutional democracy that empowers the courts to overrule the executive and legislature. But, judges are worried cabinet undermines the rule of law.
There are lessons to be learnt about the ICC from the Kellogg-Briand Pact, signed in 1928. It failed to prevent the outbreak of war but brought war criminals to justice later.
Reuters
The ICC has not lived up to its noble intentions of making the world more just. Its failure echoes that of the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact, which set out to banish wars and to settle disputes peacefully.
A judgment by South Africa’s Constitutional Court unambiguously set out South Africa’s legal obligations.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
The South African government’s failure to arrest Omar al-Bashir flies in the face of the Constitutional Court’s decision in 2014 that South Africa has a duty to abide by its international obligations.
Omar al-Bashir waves on arrival in Sudan after attending an African Union summit in Johannesburg.
Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
The attempt to arrest al-Bashir is the first time a court in an ICC member state has come to answering the question whether a sitting head of state can be detained and handed over to the ICC.
Among friends: Omar al-Bashir at the AU summit.
EPA/Kim Ludbrook
As a signatory to the Rome Statute, South Africa is obliged to arrest Omar al-Bashir and end his status as a fugitive from international law for war crimes allegedly committed in the conflict in Darfur.
A child cries in a cave shelter in Tess village in the rebel-held territory of the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan. Countless children have been killed by government forces.
Goran Tomasevic/Reuters
Countless Nuba children have been killed by shrapnel, others from a loss of blood pouring from severed limbs. Others have stepped on landmines planted by Sudan’s troops.
Omar al-Bashir – the people’s choice (for what that’s worth)
EPA/Marwan Ali
Senior Research Fellow, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and Visiting Professor University of Buckingham, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs