{"id":95896,"date":"2019-12-01T17:21:14","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T00:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=95896"},"modified":"2019-12-01T17:21:14","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T00:21:14","slug":"justice-denied-the-reality-of-the-international-criminal-court-icc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/12\/01\/justice-denied-the-reality-of-the-international-criminal-court-icc\/","title":{"rendered":"JUSTICE DENIED: THE REALITY OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr David Hoile Courtesy: Africa Research Centre<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

shows\nhow the ICC has ignored all European or Western human rights abuses in\nconflicts such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq or human rights abuses by\nWestern client states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The\nAfrica Research Centre published Justice Denied: The Reality of the\nInternational Criminal Court, a 610-page study of the International Criminal\nCourt by Dr David Hoile in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

http:\/\/www.africaresearchcentre….<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nstudy has 27 chapters: The International Criminal Court; A European Court; The\nCourt and the Security Council; The United States and the Court; The Court and\nNon-Governmental Organisations; A Glaring Democratic Deficit; Judges elected by\nvote-trading; The Office of the Prosecutor; Avoiding the Crime of Aggression;\nGranting immunity, entrenching impunity; The European Guant\u00e1namo Bay?; Inaction\nover Iraq; An Afghan casestudy; The International Criminal Court and Africa;\nThe fiction of self-referral\u201d; The fiction of deterrence; The fiction of a\nvictims\u2019 court; The Court and Uganda; The Democratic Republic of the Congo; The\nCourt and the Central African Republic; The Court and Sudan; The Court and\nKenya; The Court and the Ivory Coast; The Court and Libya; The Court and Mali;\nEuropean Double Standards; A Way Forward; as well as a videography,\nbibliography and 2,075 footnotes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice\nDenied: The Reality of the International Criminal Court finds the ICC,\nestablished in 2002 by the Rome Statute, to be unfit for purpose. The ICC\u2019s\nclaims to international jurisdiction and judicial independence are\ninstitutionally flawed and the Court\u2019s reputation has been irretrievably\ndamaged by its racism, blatant double-standards, hypocrisy, corruption and\nserious judicial irregularities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nstudy demonstrates that while the ICC presents itself as the world\u2019s court this\nis not the case. Its members represent just over one quarter of the world\u2019s\npopulation: China, Russia, the United States, India, Pakistan and Indonesia are\njust some of the many countries that have remained outside of the Court\u2019s\njurisdiction. The author points out that a court is only as credible as its\nindependence. Far from being an independent and impartial court, the ICC\u2019s own\nstatute grants special prosecutorial\u201d rights of referral and deferral to the\nSecurity Council \u2013 by default its five permanent members (three of which are\nnot even ICC members).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political\ninterference in the legal process was thus made part of the Court\u2019s founding\nterms of reference. The Court is also inextricably tied to the European Union\nwhich provides over 60 percent of its funding. The EU is additionally guilty of\nblatant political and economic blackmail in tying aid for developing countries\nto ICC membership. The expression, He who pays the piper calls the tune\u201d,\ncould not be more appropriate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice\nDenied: The Reality of the International Criminal Court shows how the ICC has\nignored all European or Western human rights abuses in conflicts such as those\nin Afghanistan and Iraq or human rights abuses by Western client states. As one\nexample, in Afghanistan, an ICC member state, alleged war crimes by ICC member\nstates such as the slaughter of 120 civilians in Kunduz in September 2009,\ndirected by a German army colonel in flagrant violation of NATO standing\norders, have been ignored by the ICC and the German state. Rather than\nprosecuting the colonel, Berlin promoted him to general. Instead of impartially\nenforcing the Rome Statute, the Europeans have chosen to focus the Court\nexclusively on Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nICC is self- evidently a racist court, in that it treats one race of people\ndifferently to all others. Despite having received almost 9,000 formal\ncomplaints about alleged crimes in at least 139 countries, the ICC has chosen\nto indict 36 black Africans in eight African countries. Given Africa\u2019s previous\ntraumatic experience with the very same colonial powers that now in effect\ndirect the ICC, this is an alarming d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu for those who live on the\ncontinent. The ICC has emerged very much as an instrument of European foreign\npolicy and its actions are increasingly being seen as recolonisation by\nspurious legal diktat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nbook also documents how the United States, on the other hand, has forcefully\npointed out that the ICC is a kangaroo court, a travesty of justice open to\npolitical influence and that no American citizen will ever come before it while\nat the same time demanding that black Africans appear before the ICC when it\nsuits American foreign policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice\nDenied: The Reality of the International Criminal Court shows how the Court\u2019s\nproceedings thus far have often been questionable where not simply farcical.\nIts judges \u2013 some of whom have never been lawyers, let alone judges \u2013 are the\nresult of grubbily corrupt vote-trading amongst member states. Far from\nsecuring the best legal minds in the world this produces mediocrity. At least\none elected judge\u201d had neither law degree nor legal experience but her country\nhad contributed handsomely to the ICC budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nCourt has produced witnesses who recanted their testimony the moment they got\ninto the witness box, admitting that they were coached by non-governmental\norganisations as to what false statements to make. Dozens of other witnesses\u201d\nhave similarly disavowed their evidence\u201d. And then there has also been the ICC\nchief prosecutor who was not only seemingly unaware of the legal concept of\npresumption of innocence but also threatened to criminalise third-parties who\nmight argue a presumption of innocence on the part of those indicted \u2013 and as\nyet unconvicted \u2013 by the Court. A clearer case of Alice in Wonderland justice,\nalong the lines of sentence first, verdict afterwards\u201d, is difficult to find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nhave been numerous prosecutorial decisions which should have ended any fair\ntrial because they would have compromised the integrity of any legal process.\nThe ICC\u2019s first trial proceeded erratically because of crass prosecutorial\nmisconduct and judicial decisions to add new charges half-way through\nproceedings, a move that was subsequently overturned. Simply put, the Court and\nthe prosecutor have been making things up as they go along. The ICC claims to\nbe economical\u201d and to bring swift justice\u201d, yet it has consumed more than a billion\nEuros and still has not even fully completed its first case, the deeply flawed\ntrial of Thomas Lubanga. Despite being held in ICC custody since 2006, as of\nMay 2014 the appeal stage of Lubanga\u2019s case had not yet been concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nICC claims to be victim-centred yet Human Rights Watch has publicly criticised\nthe ICC\u2019s ambivalence towards victim communities. The ICC claims to be fighting\nimpunity, yet it has granted de jure immunity to the United States and afforded\nde facto immunity and impunity to NATO member states and several serial abusers\nof human rights who happen to be friends of the European Union and United\nStates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice\nDenied: The Reality of the International Criminal Court also shows that far\nfrom deterring conflict, as it claims, the ICC\u2019s double-standards and autistic\nlegal blundering in Africa has derailed delicate peace processes across the\ncontinent \u2013 thereby prolonging devastating civil wars. The court is responsible\nfor the death, injury and displacement of many thousands of Africans. The ICC\u2019s\ninvolvement in Uganda, for example, destroyed peace talks in that country,\nintensifying the conflict which then spread into three neighbouring countries.\nThe study concludes that the ICC is an inept, corrupt, political court that\ndoes not have Africa\u2019s welfare at heart, only the furtherance of Western, and\nespecially European, foreign policy and its own bureaucratic imperative \u2013 to\nexist, to employ more Europeans and North Americans and where possible to\ncontinue to increase its budget \u2013 all at the expense of African lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dr\nDavid Hoile<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About\nthe Author Dr David Hoile is an African scholar and public affairs consultant\nspecialising in African affairs. He is the author of The International Criminal\nCourt: Europe\u2019s Guant\u00e1namo Bay? (2010), Darfur: The Road to Peace (2008),\nImages of Sudan: Case Studies in Propaganda and Misinformation (2003), Farce\nMajeure: The Clinton Administration\u2019s Sudan Policy 1993-2000 (2000),\nMozambique, Resistance and Freedom: A Case for Reassessment (1994), and\nMozambique: A Nation in Crisis (1989). He is also the editor of Mozambique:\n1962-1993 – A Political Chronology (1994) and The Search for Peace in the Sudan:\nA Chronology of the Sudanese Peace Process 1989- 2001 (2002). He has commented\non public policy issues on CNN, BBC News 24 and TV News, BBC radio, France 24,\nAl-Jazeera English and Arabic, Chinese Central TV, Press TV, Al-Arabiya and the\nIslam Channel. The author can be contacted by email at justicedenied2014@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Courtesy: Africa Research\nCentre<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr David Hoile Courtesy: Africa Research Centre shows how the ICC has ignored all European or Western human rights abuses in conflicts such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq or human rights abuses by Western client states. The Africa Research Centre published Justice Denied: The Reality of the International Criminal Court, a 610-page study of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}