al-Bashir appeal shows government 'committed to law'

Government’s appeal of the Gauteng High Court ruling instructing it to detain Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is an indication it views the law as important, University of Pretoria International Law professor Dire Tladi said yesterday. ‘If it were true that the government didn't care about the rule of law, then it wouldn't appeal,’ Tladi reportedly told News24. Tladi, who also acts as a special adviser to the Minister of International Relations, was a participant at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation's dialogue on the implications for the rule of law of the non-arrest of al-Bashir. Asked whether not arresting al-Bashir would have implications for the rule of law, he said it depended. ‘There is a legal process that is unfolding and we can only really determine that when all the legal issues have been resolved.’ Tladi said the issue was ‘very complicated and there is a multi-level conflict of legal rules’. International Justice project leader Kelly-Jo Bluen, at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, said the ICC wanted to pursue justice, but existed within a constrained system that privileged the global north at the expense of the global south. ‘SA didn't act well in this case, but I think this is what other states are doing all the time. I am not saying that we can do the same. But there should be a narrative where all countries are viewed equally and in the same light.’