Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
7 November 2009
Addis Ababa — Amnesty International (AI) has urged African governments to re- affirm their commitment to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Through a memorandum published this week entitled: The International Criminal Court: The Contribution Africa Can Make to the Review Conference, the organization has called on African governments to state clearly that they would prevent any officials accused of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes from seeking safe haven in their countries.
"Only justice can lay a firm foundation for lasting peace," said Kolawole Olaniyan, Africa Legal Adviser at Amnesty International.
"More than a decade ago, African states were amongst the strongest supporters of the proposal to establish a permanent international criminal court that would be able to investigate and prosecute those responsible for some of the worst crimes in the world, they must renew this commitment, as the survival of the ICC as an effective international body depends on this," Olaniyan said.
"African victims of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes are some of the chief beneficiaries of the ICC - the ICC must be fully supported so that it can continue its important work on their behalf".
The call came while the prosecutor of the ICC Moreno Ocampo is visiting Kenya on a mission to seek the understanding of the two principles, President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga on the need to begin investigations into the Kenya post election violence.
The post-election violence that rocked the country was sparked by a disputed presidential election in 2007 that left at least 1,300 people dead and a further 650,000 uprooted from their homes.
Ocampo said that he had explained his mandate to the leaders and how he plans to execute it.
"So I informed them, in December, I would request the judges of the International Criminal Court to open an investigation and that is the process established by the Rome Treaty," he said. On their part, the PM, President Kibaki said the Kenya Government remains committed to cooperating with the International Criminal Court as it seeks justice for post election violence suspects.
"The government is fully committed to discharge its primary responsibility in accordance with the Rome Statue to establish a local judicial mechanism to deal with perpetrators of the post election violence," said President Kibaki at the end of a closed door meeting at Harambee House, Nairobi.
At the same time, the call from Amnesty has come after Sudanese President Omar al Bashir cancelled scheduled visits to South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria and Venezuela, when it became clear that he could face arrest and surrender to the ICC, particularly in light of African civil society protests to the visits.
In its memorandum, AI urged African states to strongly defend the provisions of the ICC that exclude any claimed immunity for state officials - regardless of rank, including heads of state - from prosecution for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
"Every single legal instrument adopted since the Second World War by the international community has rejected immunity from prosecution for any government official charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes," said Olaniyan.
"In fact, every international court to consider the question of immunity since the establishment of the ICC has concluded that heads of state cannot successfully assert any purported immunity from prosecution for genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes." Amnesty International said that to ensure the ICC is an effective complement to national courts; it must be able to exercise its jurisdiction without political interference.
"With the exception of Darfur, all situations under investigation by the ICC were referred to the Prosecutor by African states themselves - the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda," Olaniyan stated.
The organization also urged African governments to evaluate carefully the positive and negative aspects of establishing a regional criminal court, as suggested by the African Union in an Assembly meeting in July 2009.
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For What ???? Who are they to tell Africa what to do /?? The days of their colonial mentalities concerning Africa is OVER, so also the days of controlling Africa and Africans. We "Africans" can take care of our continent. Why won't the ICC go to Europe and tell Europe the same thing or indicts those Europeans Criminal Leaders concerning their crimes against humanity especially so in Third World Countries. Can that be done ?? If so, we are waiting for that day. If not, until them, the ICC have NOTHNG to tell us what to do for the betterness of our people. First and foremost, since when do the ICC cares about Africa futures and future generations ??? Since when???? Please let ICC stop her hyprocritical ways of doing things.
Beware The Tower Of Babel Agenda of unity from the top down
The Antichrist ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT is ever looming to
come out of the Dead Womb Of Hell !
* Answer is from ground up (aka Grass Roots) – Government of self, family, neighborhoods, cities, etc..
Use the great American design (that was written & spoken, but never actually implemented. Every phase of American government was initially designed to have checks & balances on it.
WHAT WENT WRONG ?
* We never put a regular vigilant monitoring system in place.
- Us lazy so-called citizens paid politicians and bureaucrats to do what we ourselves
Should have been doing ; that is, REPRESENTING OURSELVES.
* We blindly trusted human nature which is consistently evil
* We allowed so-called public servants to make a career out of being a so-called public servants.
* We justified their oversight by concluding that all politicians lie .
DO ALL POLITICIANS LIE ?
WHAT IS THE ANSWER ?
Again the answer is self-government with constant vigilance ; especially in key areas
such as :
1) vote counting and verification (avoid the computerized voting machines .
These are stealing elections. [ See http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ ]
“ It is not who votes, IT IT WHO COUNTS THE VOTES “
2) Don’t allow anyone to make a career out of public service. If they really are a
public servant, they will make their mark and use their own drive to serve the
public.
God makes real public servants, not voters.
WAKE UP !!! STAY UP !!!
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Life Is A Game. Have Fun .
Luke 18:17 - Isaiah 11:6