Minister under fire over ICC withdrawal notice

The Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), International Commission of Jurists and Lawyers for Human Rights, as well as a range of local, regional and international human rights advocacy organisations, have criticised Justice Minister Michael Masutha’s announcement to the ICC’s Assembly of State Parties in New York this week that he would soon submit to Parliament SA’s intention to withdraw from the ICC. He would also introduce legislation to scrap the implementation of the ICC Act, which had inserted the ICC’s Rome Statute into domestic law. According to a report on the Daily Maverick site, the NGOs noted this would be the second attempt by SA to withdraw from the Rome Statute, after the first in 2016 was declared unconstitutional by the High Court after being successfully challenged by several parties, including the SALC. In his New York speech, the Minister was critical of the ICC's pre-trial chamber ruling, which found SA was obliged to arrest and detain Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. He claimed that SA’s continued membership on the ICC would undermine ‘its ability to carry out its peace-making mission efforts in Africa’ and ‘fulfil its role as mediator for peace’. Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, executive director of the SALC, said: ‘The pursuit of justice and the pursuit of peace are complementary and mutually reinforcing objectives that SA will best achieve by remaining party to the Rome Statute of the ICC,’ she said. ‘Protecting heads of state from justice compromises efforts at trying to establish peace. SA’s refusal to arrest al-Bashir is an affront to Darfuri victims,’ she added.

Full report on the Daily Maverick site

The governing ANC’s sub-committee on international relations has reaffirmed the party's resolution to withdraw from the ICC. The ANC's various NEC sub-committees met last week in the run-up to the party's national elective conference, which begins on 16 December, notes a News24 report. Deputy Minister of Public Service and Administration Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba said the sub-committee reaffirmed the party's 2015 resolution to withdraw from the ICC. ‘Furthermore, SA must ratify the Malabo Protocol on Amendments to the Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights... and encourage the speedy operationalisation of the African Court of Human and People’s Rights.’ The proposed African court is seen as a possible replacement for the ICC for African countries, many of which have accused the international body of bias.

Full Fin24 report