South Africas advance towards quitting the ICC and the following repercussions

South Africa has decided to exit the International Criminal Court (ICC) on grounds of standing
up against the supposed anti-African bias of the court, and filed a notice of its intention to quit
the ICC on the 21st of October, 2016. The notice provides the clashing of South Africas
obligations under the Rome Statute with its conventions relating to diplomatic immunity of the
heads of states, as its reason for quitting the ICC. It further complains that this comes in way of
its ability to broker peaceful resolution of conflicts. This was the case when Omar al-Bashir,
the president of Sudan, arrived in Johannesburg for an African Union summit last year. Under the
ICC rules, South Africa was obligated to arrest Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the ICC on
genocide charges and has a warrant of arrest issued against him by the ICC. Instead, Mr. Zuma,
the President of South Africa, welcomed him in an attempt to soothe the relations of South Africa
with Cuba. Mr. Bashir bid a hasty retreat back to Khartoum when civil-society groups took the
South African government to court in an attempt to force his arrest.

This announcement by South Africa was made, following that of Burundi and Gambia. This
move by South Africa has the potential of giving rise to a domino effect that might prompt even
more African countries to leave the court. A wave of withdrawals would reverse the progress
towards greater rule of law across the continent and beyond.

References: Back it Join it, The Economist (29 th October, 2016)

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21709314-african-countries-are-wrong-leave-back-
it-join-it?zid=309&ah=80dcf288b8561b012f603b9fd9577f0e

Exit South Africa, The Economist, (29th Oct 2016), http://www.economist.com/news/middle-

east-and-africa/21709296-terrible-blow-court-and-beleaguered-country-exit-south-africa?
zid=309&ah=80dcf288b8561b012f603b9fd9577f0e