NAN-F-7
ICC
by Isaac Aregbesola
Addis Ababa, Jan. 27, 2017 (NAN) The plan by members of African Union (AU) to collectively withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) may suffer a setback as Nigeria and some other countries opposed the proposal.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Addis Ababa.
Onyeama explained that there was a strategy adopted by AU for collective withdrawal from ICC which Nigeria did not subscribe to.
The minister said that when the issue came up during a meeting, several countries kicked against it.
He said Nigeria and others believed that the court had an important role to play in holding leaders accountable, hence Nigeria fully stood by it.
“Nigeria is not the only voice agitating against it, in fact Senegal is very strongly speaking against it, Cape Verde, and other countries are also against it.
“What they (AU) did was to set up a committee to elaborate a strategy for collective withdrawal.
“And after, Senegal took the floor, Nigeria took the floor, Cape Verde and some other countries made it clear that they were not going to subscribe to that decision,” he said.
The minister said other countries asked for time to study the proposal before accepting it.
He added that Zambia, Tanzania, Liberia, Botswana and host of others were not willing to withdraw from the court.
Onyeama stressed that each individual country willingly acceded to the 1998 Rome Statute which set the court.
“Each country freely and willingly acceded to the treaty, and not all of the members of the AU acceded; each country acceded individually exercising its own sovereign right.
“So each country, if they want to withdraw, has the right to do that individually.
“The issue is that the AU which was not a party to the Rome Statute which established the court, should not be developing a strategy for a collective withdrawal for something that each country entered into individually.
“Those who feel they want to withdraw should do that individually.”
In 2016 three countries, Burundi, South Africa and The Gambia, expressed their intentions to withdraw from the court.
Subsequently, Namibia, Kenya and Uganda also began to contemplate withdrawing from ICC.
The court has repeatedly been criticized by African states as an inefficient, neo-colonial institution of the Western powers to try African countries.
This argument is supported by the fact that nine of 10 situations under investigation, with three others under preliminary investigations, involve African countries.
African state parties to the Rome Statute make up the biggest regional membership, comprising 34 of the 124 members.
From 2009, African countries have called for collective withdrawal from the ICC but some countries have pushed back. (NAN)
IAA/SH
edited by Sadiya Hamza