SA awaits AU decision on ICC

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Pretoria - South Africa remains a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and will support any decision of the African Union regarding the continent’s membership in the tribunal, International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said on Tuesday.

The AU will hold an extraordinary summit this weekend to discuss its continued cooperation with the ICC.

Speculation has been rife that continental member states of the court, which was founded primarily to try genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, are expected to discuss a possible united pull-out from the ICC.

African countries account for 34 of the 122 parties to have ratified the Rome Statute, the court's founding treaty, which took effect on July 1, 2002. But it is widely believed that African states, who appear unhappy about the handling of the cases of Kenya's leaders, want the AU to boycott the court.

“…South Africa is an African country… There is a special extraordinary summit to consider our position as member of the ICC. South Africa is going to that meeting fully aware of the developments that have taken place… We will not speak for the AU but we will support any decision on this matter,” Nkoana-Mashabane said.

She was briefing reporters on Pretoria’s position on current international issues.

The minister would not be drawn into commenting on whether South Africa would support a move by the AU for its member states to withdraw from the ICC, should the continental body take such a decision this weekend.  

The ICC is the only permanent criminal court in the world that has the authority to act when national courts are unwilling or unable to prosecute.

The 15th extraordinary AU summit will be held in Addis Ababa on 11 and 12 October.

The meeting comes a month after the opening of the trial of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at The Hague for crimes against humanity.

Its outcomes will be closely watched, considering that African countries have actively supported the ICC and nominated Africans to the position of ICC judges, including current ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda from Gambia.

Need for UNSC transformation

On the call for the transformation of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Nkoana-Mashabane reiterated South Africa’s call for an “urgent” reform of the UNSC.  

President Jacob Zuma made a similar call when he attended the UN General Assembly in New York recently, where he criticised the United Nations Security Council, saying it remained undemocratic, unrepresentative and unfair to developing nations and small states.

Zuma joined developing nations in calling for reform of the UNSC, which has for decades afforded veto rights on substantive resolutions to five permanent members -- France, Russia, the United States, Britain and China.

On Tuesday, Nkoana-Mashabane said South Africa challenged the UN member states to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the United Nations in 2015 “with a reformed, more inclusive and representative UNSC”.  

“Our concern with the lack of progress on this matter is that the UN Security Council still remains undemocratic, unrepresentative and unfair to developing nations and small states, which disenfranchises the majority of the member states of the United Nations.”

South Africa could no longer keep quiet while developed nations continued to wield greater influence in the Security Council. – SAnews.gov.za