Legislation: ICC withdrawal Bill loses its champion

The potentially controversial 2017 International Crimes Bill has lost its champion – Justice & Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha is one of several Cabinet members absent from the list of political party representatives elected to serve in the National Assembly under SA’s sixth democratic Parliament (EWN). Nearly a year has passed since Masutha briefed then National Assembly Justice and Correctional Services Committee members on the Bill, the future of which will be determined by the outcome of ongoing discussions on SA’s possible withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC), notes Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch.  Its purpose is to address any gaps in domestic law likely to arise from the repeal of the 2002 Implementation of the Rome Statute of the ICC Act – focusing specifically on the prosecution of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity (Masutha).

The role of 2018 Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill champion, Justice & Constitutional Development Deputy Minister John Jeffery (who will be returning to Parliament) has yet to be announced. Having driven the Bill’s drafting process, he is likely to be more familiar with the concept of ‘intersectionality’ underpinning its provisions than incoming committee members – who are expected to announce a date for public hearings once SA’s sixth democratic Parliament begins its work in earnest. According to Jeffery, intersectionality contends that ‘traditional notions of oppression such as racism, sexism and homophobia are not independent’ but instead ‘interrelate’ – generating a system of characterised by ‘the intersection of multiple forms of discrimination’. With that in mind, the Bill seeks not only to prohibit and prevent discrimination based on race, but also on other grounds.

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