UN SECRETARY General Ban-Ki Moon has urged all countries to sign up to the International Criminal Court (ICC), rejecting criticism that it was unfairly targeting African crimes.
Speaking at the beginning of a 10 day conference in Kampala, Uganda to discuss the achievements of the ICC, the UN Secretary General said that the court had altered the behaviour of governments, breaking new ground on victims’ rights and ending the culture of impunity that exists in many countries.
“Few would have believed then that this court would spring so vigorously into life, fully operational, investigating and prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the UN secretary general told delegates.
“We are here in Kampala to build on this success to help build this court into all that it can be and all that it must be,” Mr Ban said.
The meeting in the Ugandan capital brings human rights groups, politicians and lawyers to Africa, which has produced all five of the cases under investigation by the court.
That has led to allegations that the ICC is a court imposed on Africans by the international community, as three permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia, China and United States, have still not signed up to it.
This has led Sudan, which has long rejected the authority of the ICC, to dismiss the arrest warrant against its leader, President Omar al-Bashir, as “neo-colonialist”.
“It must be remembered that it is African states who pushed for the independence of the office of the prosecutor as it was feared that western states may influence his judgment,” said Gitonga Muranga, a researcher at the Kenyan section of the international commission of jurists.
The office of the prosecutor operates independently of the court, which plays an oversight role.
“Africa has therefore not been unfairly targeted by the ICC, and far from it, the four self-referred cases currently before the ICC, have all been initiated at the sole request of the state parties.”
To date, the court has opened investigations into five situations: northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Darfur (Sudan), and Kenya. Four of these countries asked the ICC to investigate human rights violations in their countries, with Sudan referred to the ICC by the United Nations Security Council in 2005.
So far, the court has indicted 14 people, seven of whom remain fugitives. Two others are believed to be dead, four are in custody while another is appearing voluntarily before the court. So far no one has been convicted of alleged war crimes.
Delegates have gathered in Kampala to discuss the future of the Hague-based court, where they will also discuss proposals giving it powers to probe state aggression.
This could prove to be one of the most controversial topics at the conference.