African leaders vote themselves immunity from new human rights court
Heads of state at African Union summit vote to strip the African court of
justice and human rights of power to prosecute them
* Monica Mark <
http://www.theguardian.com/profile/monica-mark> in
Lagos
* theguardian.com <
http://www.theguardian.com/> ,
* Thursday 3 July 2014 13.18 BST
For years, African governments have accused the
<
http://www.theguardian.com/law/international-criminal-court> international
criminal court of unfairly targeting leaders from the continent. Their
proposed alternative - the African court of justice and human rights - was
intended to give the continent a home-grown solution. But on Monday, in a
move that one rights campaigner called an own goal, leaders stripped the
court - which has yet to begin work - of power to prosecute them for
genocide, <
http://www.theguardian.com/law/war-crimes> war crimes or crimes
against humanity.
At an <
http://www.theguardian.com/world/africanunion> African Union summit
last week in Equatorial Guinea - often spotlighted for its own rights abuses
- heads of state and officials voted to grant sitting leaders and senior
officials immunity from prosecution. The immunity would be valid only while
officials are in power, but critics warned it could further encourage
attempts to seize office for life. Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe is the world's
longest-ruling leader, and African heads of state make up roughly half of
the globe's top 10.
The decision rolls back half a century of developments in international
human rights and criminal justice law, said Kenyan activist Njonjo Mue.
Other courts of last resort, such as the international criminal court (ICC),
can prosecute sitting or past leaders who typically have immunity in their
national courts.
"It's a joke," said Mue, programme director at the Nairobi-based
<
http://kptj.africog.org/> Kenyans for Peace With Truth and Justice. "The
[African] court has been cited as an African solution to African problems,
but by granting themselves immunity they put themselves out of reach of the
institution. Ninety per cent of the crimes [the court investigates] will be
by senior officials in power . It's an own goal because it means victims
have no choice but to turn to the ICC for justice."
The ICC was set up a decade ago to try those accused of the worst
international crimes, but
<
http://www.globalpolicy.org/us-un-and-international-law-8-24/us-opposition-
to-the-icc-8-29.html> some global powers - including Russia and the US -
don't recognise its jurisdiction. However, the Hague-based institution's
most strained relationship has long been with African leaders. All eight
people it has indicted are African. Its current chief prosecutor,
<
http://www.theguardian.com/law/fatou-bensouda> Fatou Bensouda, from Gambia,
faced renewed accusations of bias when prosecutors - as opposed to
governments or the UN - initiated their first case, against the Kenyan
president, Uhuru Kenyatta, and his deputy, William Ruto, for fomenting
ethnic bloodletting after a disputed 2007 election. About 1,200 people died
in the violence. The seven other African cases were all referred to the ICC
by governments or the UN.
Survivors of some of the civil conflicts that raged through west
<
http://www.theguardian.com/world/africa> Africa in the 1990s - and helped
bring about the ICC's creation - also expressed dismay at the African
court's draft constitution.
Sorie Sawanah, a former taxi driver, had his arm chopped off by drug-crazed
child soldiers rampaging through Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, in 1999.
"He doesn't want to speak on that - it just pains him," said his son
Ibrahim, when told about African leaders being granted immunity from
prosecution.
Both men said they had felt "at peace" in April 2012, when Charles Taylor
became the first African president to be prosecuted at an international
court. A UN-backed special court for Sierra Leone
<
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/26/charles-taylor-guilty-war-crim
es> found the former Liberian president guilty of aiding and abetting war
crimes and crimes against humanity for supporting rebels who carried out
atrocities in Sierra Leone - such as the one in which Sawanah lost his arm -
in return for "blood diamonds".
Not everybody is critical of the proposed new court. Assiatou Bamba, a
trader, who was forced to flee with two children from her home in Ivory
Coast's capital, Abidjan, during the 2011 conflict, said prosecutions went
against a traditional spirit of reconciliation.
The former Ivory Coast president
<
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-27823391> Laurent Gbagbo is awaiting
trial at The Hague. Gbagbo, 69, is accused of plunging his country into
civil war instead of relinquishing power after losing elections in 2010.
"Here in Ivory Coast we witnessed terrible things," said Bamba, whose home
was shelled during the conflict. "But now, what good does it do to drag up
the past? Besides, we have a culture of respecting those in position of
authority, and - whatever wrong they have done - our leaders shouldn't be
humiliated in a court."
Such sentiments of reconciliation were partly behind the creation of
Rwanda's controversial
<
http://newint.org/features/web-exclusive/2012/06/15/gacaca-courts-legacy/>
Gacaca courts (although they did not try leaders). The word means "grass" in
the country's Kinyarwanda language, referring to the place where communities
traditionally gathered to resolve disputes. The courts combined modern
criminal law with more traditional informal community procedures.
Bamba's husband, Aboubacar, dismissed arguments that reconciliation meant
leaving crimes unpunished. "Being in a position of authority does not mean
having the right to slaughter those beneath you like chickens," he said.
Amnesty International said the decision by African leaders to grant
themselves immunity was "a step backward for justice".
"At a time when the African continent is struggling to ensure that there is
accountability for serious human rights violations and abuses, it is
impossible to justify this decision, which undermines the integrity of the
African court of justice and human rights, even before it becomes
operational," said the organisation's Africa director, Netsanet Belay.
Received on Thu Jul 03 2014 - 17:59:16 EDT