The President of Sudan, Omar Al-Bashir, stands accused of war crimes by the International
Criminal Court, and there is an international warrant out for his arrest.
But despite this, while he attended an African Union summit in South Africa, he was not detained
by authorities . So what is the ICC, and how much authority does it really have?
The ICC in its current form, was officially set up in 1998 to persecute individuals for
only the worst international crimes.
It functions independently of the United Nations’ International Court of Justice.
Calls for a universal judicial body like this, had been increasingly abundant since World
War I. Precursor courts to the ICC included the Nuremburg Trials in the 1940s, and ad
hoc courts to deal with the Rwandan Genocide and the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s.
The current ICC headquarters reside in the Netherlands.
With a staff of about 200 people, the court deals only with genocide, war crimes and crimes
against humanity.
Often, defendants are judged in absentia, meaning, they aren’t present for the trial.
If convicted, an international warrant is issued for the person’s arrest and prosecution.
But still, not all governments are on board with the ICC, as evidenced by South Africa’s
reluctance to arrest Al-Bashir while he was in their jurisdiction.
According to one ICC prosecutor, many African governments feel that the court is “preoccupied
with Africa”, and fails to investigate other conflicts elsewhere in Western nations.
According to Al Jazeera, Sudan does not accept ICC judgements against its president Al-Bashir,
because it views itself as a “victim of Western hypocrisy and hegemony”.
Presently, only 123 countries have officially signed and ratified the establishment of the
ICC.
But there are many countries, including China, India and Cuba, that flat out do not accept
any judgements from the courts.
The US originally ratified the treaty, but has since backed out on any legal obligations
to the ICC, reportedly due to conflicts with its own domestic court system.
Even with so many countries party to the ICC, the only enforcement powers it has are through
the police forces of member countries.
Clearly, the courts remain questionably effective, with nations obeying court decisions essentially
on their own terms.
Although the worst of the atrocities in Sudan are behind us, there are still many issues
yet to deal with.
To learn about the situation today, check out our full video here.
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