Zambia opens public discussions on leaving ICC
Zambia's President Edgar Lungu at the Élysée Palace in Paris, France on February 8, 2016. PHOTO | PHILIPPE WOJAZER | AFP
What you need to know:
The consultations, to be conducted in 30 districts, will start next Monday, the state television said.
The influence for Zambia to leave ICC could be coming from “outside” as the country had no formidable reason to campaign for its departure, analysts say. They believe the process is politically driven.
LUSAKA, Friday
Zambia has opened public discussions on whether or not to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“The Ministry of Justice has launched the consultative process on Zambia’s position on the country’s membership to the International Criminal Court,” the state television, the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation, reported.
The consultations, which will take place in 30 districts, will start next Monday, it said.
The influence for Zambia to leave ICC could be coming from “outside” as the country had no formidable reason to campaign for its departure, analysts say. They believe the process is politically driven.
African leaders have often accused the global court of targeting them unfairly, hence pushing for a mass withdrawal.
The African Union backed the push for a collective withdrawal but the decision, taken by African leaders during a closed door session at an AU summit in Ethiopia, was not legally binding.
The continent has 34 signatories to the Rome Statute, the treaty which set up the court.
The debate on the ICC was hugely divisive on the question of whether this should be individual or collective withdrawal.
Burundi, South Africa and The Gambia applied to leave the court - but the case for the latter two seems to have hit a wall.
In The Gambia, new President Adama Barrow said he would reverse the decision by his predecessor Yahya Jammeh.
A High Court in Pretoria recently revoked the South African government’s decision to pull out of ICC. The court ruled that government’s notice of withdrawal was “unconstitutional and invalid.”
Last October, Justice minister Michael Masutha announced that the country had initiated the process to pull out from the Hague-based court.
He said, at the time, that the SA government felt the ICC undermined its sovereignty and had previously shown bias against African nations.
The move followed a dispute over the government’s failure to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir when he visited the country in 2015.
