Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo has been convicted for crimes of sexual violence during war in the Central African Republic. It’s a significant case, but not the historic victory it’s been hailed as.
A four year trial and several years of deliberation later, and an international tribunal is to decide on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.
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.
Bombing a hospital and killing doctors and wounded or sick persons may seem to be an obvious war crime. But the reality of both the law and the facts is significantly more complicated.
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.
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.
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.
Months after Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile was destroyed, chlorine attacks are continuing – and there’s little sign of any war crimes charges materialising.
With the peace process derailed and the incoming Netanyahu administration promising zero tolerance to Palestine, joining the ICC sets a major cat among the pigeons.