has issued an advisory opinion over referrals to ICC for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and agression for the obvious reasons. COMING INTO BEING: from June 15 to 21 July 1998 a number of states participated in its inception in Italy. A number of states signed it and offered it for ratification, IN 1999, Senegal, like a lamb to the slaughter house, became the first state to ratify it. USA signed it in Dec 2001 perhaps to woo more lambs and in 2002, Bush made a clear statement of the US intention not to ratify the statute. NB: Ratification is the process of undertaking by a state to be bound by a treaty. Signing a treaty is simply acknowledgement that a treaty has been negotiated and agreed upon. This was a UN resolution, with an arrangement I do not need to mention; process of decision making, veto powers, 5 permanent members and rotational African and other states....propounding the best of west impunity and neo-colonialism. The history though to come up with the court begun in 1946 ,Soon after the Nuremberg Judgment, an international congress meets in Paris and calls for the adoption of an international criminal code prohibiting crimes against humanity and for the prompt establishment of an international criminal court (ICC). Some events continued to affect it, until the 1991-1992 Wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, including clear violations of the Genocide and Geneva Conventions, lead the UN Security Council to establish a temporary tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (in 1993) and strengthen discussions for a permanent Court. in 1994, the International Law Commission (ILC) submitted a draft law on the establishment of the ICC to the UN General Assembly. Mention the role played by NGOs in 1995 to speed the process, so if they tell you NGOs have a say in the said court, dont get surprised. April 11, 2002 saw a big event; The 60th ratification necessary to trigger the entry into force of the Rome Staute is deposited during a special ceremony at UN headquarters. Countries to deposit their treaty instruments during this ceremony were 11, I only remember Bosnia, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, Romania and Slovakia for their ending ia and African states. One area that never went through a prime scrutiny is the office of the Prosecutor to which Luis Moreno Ocampo held as the first prosecutor, its powers, scope and check was not subjected to a scrutiny. Mr. Moreno-Ocampo, holds his first press briefing to discuss the nearly 500 communications to have been received by the Court. He names the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo as the most urgent situation that his office will “follow closely. That was to spell doom for the African continent. EXISTENCE: Nothing has been amended on the Rome statute despite the change in circumstances and ratifications by new states atleast to accomodate emerging issues in jurisprudence of international law. It undermines the spirit of self-determination envisioned under Article 34 of the UN Charter which mandates citizens to determine their own destiny, Article 2 on recognition of states sovereignty et al . A case involving a German is quoted world over for the preposition that the state cannot be permitted to evoke its domestic law to avoid an international obligation where a treaty has been signed and ratified. Hitherto prosecution of Africans only defeats the spirit with which the Court was formed. FUTURE: The Court has no future. I will not discuss this. In my community, we dont talk about the dead. I will tell you about the ICJ. ICC is like a Cat and ICJ is like Mother Cat. If there is a difference, its age and colour. Similarities ranges from propensities to its composition and control. In 1962, Ethiopia and liberia brought a case against South Africa which the League of Nations had bestowed trusteeship over South-West Africa (Namibia) much of the issues at the time was apartheid which was hitting SA fro below. ICJ ruled that the two states did not have their citizens in South-West Africa suffering arpartheid. African states staged a mass boycott to refer cases to ICJ. It was until 1970s when Africans forgot it and went ahead to take cases there. That brings us to a fundamental question: by the time Western countries engages in all these diplomatic approaches to place African states at the most vulnerable quagmires, where were our diplomats, experts and legal minds? I have written alot, but I love sharing emotions :) Enjoy your evening pals...love you.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 12:40:26 +0000
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