By Dr David Hoile
Last week, in Kampala, Uganda, state members of the International Criminal Court begin their first ever review conference of the Court since its establishment in 2002. When the Assembly of States parties meet in Kampala there is a lot they should be worried about, not least of which the fact that the ICC has proved to be manifestly unfit for purpose. The ICC’s claims to international jurisdiction and judicial independence are institutionally flawed and the Court’s approach has been marred by blatant double-standards and serious judicial irregularities.
While the ICC presents itself as an international court this is quite simply not the case. Its members represent just over one quarter of the world’s population: China, Russia, the United States and India are just some of the many countries that have remained outside of the Court’s jurisdiction.
The truth is also that the ICC is as independent as the United Nations Security Council and the Court’s European Union funding lets it be. The ICC’s own statute grants special “prosecutorial” rights to the Security Council. Political interference was thus made part of the Court’s founding terms of reference.
The Court is also umbilically tied to the European Union which provides over 60 percent of its funding. Unsurprisingly perhaps the ICC has ignored all Western human rights abuses in Afghanistan and Iraq or human rights abuses by Western client states. Instead, the Europeans have chosen to focus the Court exclusively on Africa. Despite over 8,000 complaints about alleged crimes in at least 139 countries, the ICC has started investigations into just five countries, all of them African. Given Africa’s previous traumatic experience with the very same colonial powers that now in effect direct the ICC, this must create an alarming déjà vu for those who live on the continent.
The Court’s proceedings have often been questionable where not farcical. Its judges – some of whom have never been lawyers, let alone judges – are appointed as the result of vote-trading amongst member states. The Court has produced witnesses who recanted their testimony the moment they got into the witness box. There have been prosecutorial decisions which should have ended any fair trial because they compromised the integrity of any subsequent process. Simply put, the Court has been making things up as it goes along.
It has cost half a billion Euros to put on one deeply flawed trial, which subsequently ground to a halt for months. The ICC claims to be victim-centred, yet Human Rights Watch has criticised its ambivalence towards victim communities. The ICC claims to be fighting impunity, yet it has afforded de facto immunity and impunity to several serial abusers of human rights who happen to be friends of the West.
[pullquote] Despite over 8,000 complaints about alleged crimes in at least 139 countries, the ICC has started investigations into just five countries, all of them African. [/pullquote]
Africa fought long and hard for its independence. It must reject this new “legal” colonialism. The ICC’s legal blundering in Africa has derailed delicate peace processes – thereby prolonging devastating civil wars. There is a clear lesson for countries in Africa and elsewhere: do not join the ICC and do not refer your country to the ICC. The ICC does not have Africa’s welfare at heart, only the furtherance of Western, and especially European, foreign policy and its own bureaucratic imperative – to exist, to employ more Europeans and North Americans and where possible to continue to increase its budget.
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Dr David Hoile, an African scholar and consultant, is the author of ‘The International Criminal Court: Europe’s Guantánamo Bay?’. He can be contacted at [email protected]
The West has always been playing double standards. Let them first prosecute Israel and its recent murders on the Flotilla before they go to Africa for further colonial interference.
The ICC is in its infancy and as every sane human being knows, multi-national institutions of the magnitude of the ICC take time to get steady grounding. With time its structures will obviously be streamlined and things will operate clearly. Now, when it comes to Africa, every living soul knows and agrees that Africa is the continental with some of the most notorious leaders the world has ever seen. We need not go far, just look at what RB is doing in Zambia; this punk-ass has committed some of the most serious crimes in just one year of his misrule: plunder, gross abuse of power, human persecutions, miscarriage of justice, human rights violations and the list is endless. And in Africa, it appears impossible to bring such foolish rulers to justice except through ICC!
I don’t really know the in’s and out’s of the ICC , but i do know that it is not all encompassing.
……..Kind of selective justice. Not a serious institution at all.
# GOODMAN ,There no substance in your alleagation that RB has commited any human rights violations in the country ,Zambia has remained a peaceful country and making very good economical advances .The problem with some you chaps in the diaspora is that you are bitter about RB for your own suffering.He has told you on several occasions that invest at home because your friends are getting rich while you just spend your money on paying bills from very meager earnings that you get ,you can’t even afford to support your families back home in Zambia.RB did not send you there to go and study as self sponsored students .You thought it was cheap.Get back home and study UNZA man!Stop being petty.
ICC should just effing get the F out of Africa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
#4,YAYA, what the f*ck are you talking about? Look, if you’re a student and suffering where ever you are that’s you own f*cking problem. FYI, I’m not a student; I’m a professional in gainful employment with a very lucrative salary. When I compare myself to fellow colleagues with similar qualifications as mine, but are languishing back home being paid meagre salaries with no hope for the future, it makes my heart bleed. I figure out I would have been in the same situation had I not made my wise move to migrate to the USA. So, what you are talking about you punk-a*s does not make sense. Zambia can surely do better than the roller-coaster of this RB buffoon. Now , if you don’t follow the atrocities this buffoon is committing day day out, then you’re not worth living.
No one is saying Africa has no issues to resolve. All we are saying is that its time Africa started solving its own problems. Let the ICC prosecute the selfish capitalists behind IMF and World Bank. Those institutions have been the cause of untold miserly and suffering in Africa. Only a woman or man lacking self respect will want her/his neighbor to sort out problems for them. If you depend on these people in your thinking all the time, then you’re brain washed.
Dear Goodman,
I think it is entirely possible for you to calmly and wisely answer your opponent without making outlandish claims. They are people in Zed who are worse of than you are (true) but I know for a fact that they are some too who are there and are better off than you are in the US. You can’t make a sweeping generalization like that. We’re all in different situations. Don’t lose your head. Focus.
Haha. Microscopic example right here, of how we fight while they get away with murder. Maybe in a thousand years we will all agree on one thing, that we are part of a failed system that needs an overhaul. We should be fighting the system not each other. Ba Yaya, try to be objective in your claims, it is not a battle between those in foreign nations against those residing in Zambia. Sometimes living abroad simply opens your eyes wider to our own short-comings as a nation, and if we trully are invested in Zambia then we should be able to criticise those that take advantage of the uneducated majority. Goodman, I wouldn’t go about it your way, but I certainly understand your frustration. Still I think we can all get along, for we are not that much different after all.
# 9 Abena CB.
Agreed. Now, this ICC . . .
No.4 Yaya if you are a student and suffering don’t think all of us out here are in that position i’m a doctor myself and i know what my friends are paid in Zambia, if you knew how much i get here in the UK you will want to be my son so that you can enjoy life with me going back to Zambia is not always the answer some of us are living pretty do not compare yourself to us because we will put you were you belong. And i would not want to come and damage my car on those roads. If anything you went off the mark here write about icc.
Good Morning
Quote “The ICC does not have Africa’s welfare at heart, only the furtherance of Western, and especially European, foreign policy and its own bureaucratic imperative – to exist, to employ more Europeans and North Americans and where possible to continue to increase its budget.”
I very much agree with the author – if the ICC has not been any helpful in bringing justice to Africa, why should we reluctantly continue to accept their policies? It is only self-destructive to us.
Dear Goodman,
You HIROSHIMA kind of response, says a lot. Did YAYA hit a nail on the head? I to graduated from UNZA and I know am much better than most of my brothers here. But you see its just the way you guys out there want to paint the situation back home as being soo bad at times that worries me. Yes its true you need to run around and find this and that to do otherwise depending on the job only you cant make ends meet. We have been made tough than most of you out there. If thrown back home … The beuty about this initiative is that it has turned a lot of enterprising young men and women into making money of their own. So when you just rush to RB as the causer of all the Misery and so is fit for ICC, I think its not fair. How long has the man been in office? guys lets be fair.
Well Pact, my honest opinion is that African nations must decide what a realistic approach to handling their problems is. You cannot have situations such as the ones in Zimbabwe, Sudan, DRC, Kenya, and Rwanda where you are dependent on foreign intervention for survival against your very own and yet demand a level of independence that calls for the west to be completely uninvolved. I think that the politics that most African leaders ride on creates a situation where the majority in their countries could benefit from neutral oversight. Now you are right, it will come with consequences for we know the west will have its interests ahead of our own, but if this is the less of the two evils we must choose from then why not? I think Africa could use the ICC to move past some of it’s problems.
# 11, I wish you well with your Pounds and Pretty good life, well done and God bless. As a proud Zambian, I am telling you we are had nuts back here. The time those guys will have nothing to do with you and ask you to go back were you came from, you will find YAYA the one you are belittling in the better position than you are. You can show us your pay and your expediture and your saving; and we shall show you our meagre salaries, then our investiment in cattle, goats farms and houses and we shall leave it to you to calculate who is well off. Home is home. You still point to Zambia as home because were are here.
#4 why are you so bitter towards the diaspora? banakutana Visa? acting as if we are the ones responsible for putting the chibabula on your musana . This bitterness seems to be endemic ku zambia, it just shows how sad you are when you occupy yourself with malicious stories of diasporee’s to make yourself feel better. You are the same clowns who beg for £’s and $’s to buy mosi and yet claim to be doing well . FOOT SAKE !!
the ICC may not be the ideal tool in its current form. however the bottomline is that Africa needs an organ the enforces good governance and human rights. abuse do not only end at poor or lackof service delivery but even atrocities through law enforcement agencies. we cat turn a blind eye any more. crimes againist humanity have taken place right under our noses during all our leaders’ tenuresKaunda, Chiluba, Mwanawasa and Banda inclusive especially during elections. recent events in Mufumbwe by Banda’s MMD are only a tip of the iceburg. even opposition leaders do not come nout clean. they commit all these atrosties knowing that they are not answerable to any laws or can evade any existing legislations. we need a good ICC.
the ICC may not be the ideal tool in its current form. however the bottomline is that Africa needs an organ that enforces good governance and human rights. abuses do not only end at poor or lack of service delivery but include even atrocities through law enforcement agencies. we cant turn a blind eye any more. crimes againist humanity have taken place right under our noses during all our leaders’ tenures Kaunda, Chiluba, Mwanawasa and Banda inclusive especially during elections. recent events in Mufumbwe by Banda’s MMD are only a tip of the iceburg. even opposition leaders do not come out clean. they commit all these atrosties knowing that they are not answerable to any laws or can evade any existing legislations. we need a good ICC.
No.15 that is were you are wrong i come from southern province were i have invested in a very big farm ( with a lot of cattle – you are eating beef from my farm boy) i don’t need to be there because i have family in Zambia taking care of stuff, you can never do away with doctors you don’t seem to know what you are talking about from my point of view you have something against those of us who are out of Zambia it is our choice and there is nothing you can do about it.
People, this war of word about who is who makes us wack. On this blog, no one must be a doctor, engineer, lawyer,technician, sweeper and the list is endless. We are basically debating and learning from each other.
Now, The ICC is of course unwelcome in my opinion. There are however a multitude of miltones for africa to overcome. Reasons are that most African countries are stil under dictotorship,zambia included.
This brings me home;
KK had foreign accounts which were frozen.
FTJ is a master plunderer of a govt.He was convicted by the london court but that was overruled by the zambian court.
FTJ does not respect zambian courts but M’embe’s personal echo lands him in jell.
Colonialism is not good and we must form our own court of arbitation as africa.
Yes we can!!!!!!!!!!
typical zambian, such petty comfrontations. every time you come on the blogg all you find is how some who live better than others showing off and how others demonise those in diaspora. comeon guys. this is the clear reason why we cant progress as a nation. even with many degrees people still cant reason bettter than those they tell off. ii thought education not only brings a good pay check but higher sense of reason too.
Imwe Ka Goodman and London Kaponya insults won’t take you anyway.Some of you so aclled Doctors because your parents were well connected to the academic staff.Am very comfortable person who left Zambia long time ago but i still love my country and respect RB hez done nothing wrong apart from being RB hated by Mmeebe who constantly misinform you little boys in the diaspora ,you eat,drink and live lies through his toilet paper Post Zambia.Junior Doctor imwe what can you tell me?
YAYA grow up, if you have nothing to contribute then just enjoy reading, we are not here to read crap…
Number 22, that’s a very lame comment, do not speak of things that you do not know about.I respect you guys in the diaspora and can never hate on you but Number 22, you are not in zambia now, you do not know what is going on, you do not see the corruption that your grand pa RB is promoting and you do not see the suffering that the average zambian goes through, so keep quiet and continue eating broccolli, your opinion on zambia does not hold weight, you are not here right now. Deputy health minister shoots somebody gets away with it and works under RB whom you support and you think that is normal?
@ Number 1, i agree with you, the ICC must first act on other continents before pouncing on africa
@SUPERGIRL, Thank you for those words to YAYA
Supergirl
tell yo pals Goodman and London Kaponya the same,i have a lot to contribute much more than you so called supergirl ,i do not know at what ?
This tally’s with what Dr. Dambwiso is saying in her book . The leadership quality and the aid has made most African leaders become greedy and given the western world a chance to control the African states. Zambia is like a donkey with the riders dangling a carrot in front it(Do not mean to be rude).The moment we realize that the rider needs to get down in order to get the carrot will be the first step to progress.Otherwise our leaders will be always on the quest to for that carrot traveling everyday from one nation to another.Africa nations are in an economic singularity and Zambia is no exception.Zambia needs people in diaspora and much as it needs the people at home. 50years ago Chine was in the same position but its leaders realized that a knowledge based citizen can contribute…
really fantastic factors right here, just many thanks