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.
The trials weren’t perfect, but the Allies had wanted to shoot the defendants, so at least the world learned something about justice.
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.
The reconstructed front of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over Ukraine in July 2014.
AAP/Lloyd Jones
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.
Russia is the latest to deny 1995 massacre was genocide. Why is it so hard to agree on this issue?
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.
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.
Syrians in Jordan protest ongoing chemical attacks.
EPA/Jamal Nasrallah
Months after Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile was destroyed, chlorine attacks are continuing – and there’s little sign of any war crimes charges materialising.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas signs ICC Rome Statute last December.
EPA
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.