The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a court of last resort that was created to investigate and prosecute individuals accused of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The ICC was established by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 1998, and it began sittings on July 1, 2002, after 60 countries had ratified the Rome Statute. To date, some 120 countries have ratified it. The ICC has jurisdiction over offenses committed after July 1, 2002, in a country that has ratified the Rome Statute or by an individual in one of the ratifying countries, even if the individual is a national of a country that has not ratified it. The ICC sits in the Netherlands at The Hague.
When the ICC was established, it was widely applauded; no longer would the heinous crimes of world leaders and others with power go unpunished. However, enthusiasm for the ICC has waned since then, especially on the African continent, among claims that the court is disproportionately targeting Africans and engaging in Western imperialism and/or neocolonialism.
It is easy to see why such claims have been made: As of December 2016, only one of the court’s investigations has occurred in a non-African country (Georgia); all other investigations have concerned individuals from eight African countries. Defenders of the court rebut these charges by noting the origins of the African investigations: five African countries (Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, and Uganda) invited the ICC to investigate allegations of wrongdoing in their countries, and investigations concerning two other countries (Sudan and Libya) were begun at the request of the UN Security Council. The only African investigation that the ICC began of its own volition was the one in Kenya. Also, preliminary examinations—the precursor to an investigation—have been opened in non-African areas, including Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq (regarding the actions of United Kingdom nationals in Iraq), Palestine, and Ukraine, as well as in some other African countries: Burundi, Gabon, Guinea, and Nigeria.
Another point to take into consideration when examining the focus of the ICC’s preliminary examinations and investigations is which countries have not ratified the Rome Statute and therefore are not a party to the court. For example, China, India, Russia, and the United States never ratified the Rome Statute (although the latter two are signatories) and therefore are not a party to the court. That larger powerful countries such as the aforementioned four have not yet joined the ICC has irritated many who feel that the lack of ratification by those countries perpetuates a sense of unequal and unfair treatment in the ICC’s activities. The court has also come under fire for what some feel is a lackluster track record of having won only four cases since its start.
Countries that no longer wish to be a part of the ICC are free to leave. But a country’s declaring its intention to leave the ICC doesn’t mean that the withdrawal automatically happens. There is a procedure that needs to be followed. In order for a country to formally withdraw from the ICC, the country must notify the secretary-general of the United Nations in writing; once that notification has been received, withdrawal will take effect one year from the date of the notification, or later if the notification specifies a later date.
In 2016 several countries announced that they were leaving or were considering leaving the ICC. Many of those countries cited the previously mentioned concerns as their reasons for wanting to depart from the court, but some observers also noted that certain countries that were contemplating leaving the ICC were the subjects of, or the potential subjects of, investigations that would be unfavorable to their governments. Russia announced that it was going to leave the ICC, but since Russia never ratified the Rome Statute, it technically couldn’t withdraw from the court; it could only declare that it was withdrawing its signature from the original 1998 statute. Other countries that have also mulled a departure include Namibia, Uganda, Kenya, and the Philippines. Thus far, only three countries have taken formal action to withdraw from the court. Burundi, South Africa, and The Gambia all submitted written notification to the secretary-general of the UN, informing him of their intent to withdraw; this raised the alarm for the future of the court if other countries were to follow suit. In December, however, The Gambia’s new president-elect announced his intention to stay with the ICC, and in South Africa, the decision to leave the ICC was in the process of being challenged in that country’s court system. These actions gave some measure of hope that a mass departure from the ICC might not be as imminent as it initially appeared.