Rank: Veteran Joined: 9/11/2007 Posts: 816
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Some insight here Kenya’s threat to withdraw from the ICC: what will SA do?"While South Africa has not come out decisively stating whether it will, or will not, support a resolution to withdraw from the ICC, a spokesperson for the Department of International Relations and Co-Operation has described the likelihood of South Africa withdrawing from the court as “a big if.”
And it was just over six weeks ago that ICC president, Sang-Hyun Song praised South Africa as a “very active and supportive member state” of the Court.
Still, the Southern Africa Litigation Centre has written to various South African government departments imploring South Africa’s representatives to “publicly confirm its support for the ICC.”
“The credibility and future of the ICC is on the line. South Africa must stand up for international justice,” SALC’s ...project lawyer for international criminal justice, said in a statement..
“With exemplary legislation for international crimes and a Constitution committed to human rights and justice, South Africa must speak out at the African Union summit, reaffirming its commitment to the ICC and encouraging other African governments to back the Court - and the fight against impunity for crimes against humanity,” she said.
Her organisation is one of 130 groups from across Africa that has called on African members to reaffirm their commitment to the ICC.
... Jakaya Kikwete, also expressed the AU's dissatisfaction with the court at the UN general assembly last month.
"The ICC continues to ignore repeated requests and appeals by the African Union," he said. "This attitude has become a major handicap that fails to reconcile the court's secondary and complementary role in fighting impunity."
Then there is Court’s apparent unwillingness to open investigations into the potential war crimes and crimes committed against humanity in the wars waged in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Speaking at the Review Conference of the Rome Statute, Former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, spoke particularly of this apparent immunity the most powerful in the world appeared to hold when it comes to international justice.
“What kind of leadership is this which would absolve the powerful from the rules they apply to the weak?"
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