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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Senior Research Fellow, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and Visiting Professor University of Buckingham, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs