Summit skirts around complaints about ICC

African objections to International Criminal Court actions, including its prosecution of Kenya’s leaders, were not raised during the open sessions of the US-Africa summit.

But the US envoy to the United Nations did reflect on Africa-ICC relations in response to a question during a meeting with a few reporters on Wednesday.

Ambassador Samantha Power said developments following last year’s bitter UN battle over Kenya’s bid to win deferral of the ICC cases have had “a significant impact” on African perceptions of the court.

She pointed to the Security Council debate in May over ICC intervention in Syria as one factor that eased Africans’ concerns over what some had viewed as bias on its part.

Several African countries had earlier joined Kenya in complaining that the ICC focuses solely on alleged crimes in Africa. But, Ms Power noted, three African members of the Security Council supported a move by the US and its allies to allow the ICC to investigate atrocities in Syria.

The effort failed due to vetoes cast by Russia and China. And that outcome made clear “who opposes accountability in the Middle East,” Ms Power said, noting it was not the countries that had blocked Kenya’s attempt to win an ICC deferral.

African countries’ success in changing some ICC rules of procedure following the November 2013 debate over the Kenyan cases was another factor affecting African attitudes, Ms Power said.

WE HAD A DISAGREEMENT

“It wasn’t just that the Africans came and made their case (regarding the Kenya deferral) and we had a disagreement and people went to their respective corners,” Ms Powell recounted. Instead, the Syria initiative and the ICC rule changes generated a positive “dialogue,” she said.

“There are countries that feel very strongly about the ICC and are not its supporters and are often quite vocal,” the envoy said.
At the same time, she added, “there are a lot of countries in Africa that see this institution as a critical backdrop.”

She said countries like Botswana and Sierra Leone see their membership in the ICC as just one more measure of how far they have come in their own democratic journeys.”

“African ownership of the trajectory the ICC is on and ownership of the accountability conversation internationally has had some effect,” Ambassador Power suggested.

She separately noted in Wednesday’s roundtable discussion that a growing number of African countries are “mimicking laws in countries like Russia” that restrict civil-society organisations.

Ambassador Power cited Ethiopia and Uganda in this regard.

Journalists have been imprisoned in Ethiopia, she noted. “Increased pressures on civil society in Uganda” are also a cause of concern, the ambassador added.

These repressive measures are part of an international trend whereby more than 50 countries have recently instituted restrictions on civil society, she said.