Reject ICC cases bid – Amnesty

PHOTO | AFP The United Nations General Assembly session October 18, 2012 during the vote for five countries to become non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for the years 2013-2014 at UN headquarters in New York. An international rights group has urged the UN Security Council to reject a proposal to defer Kenyan cases in The Hague.

By  KEVIN J. KELLEY

What you need to know:

  • Amnesty International on Wednesday said the council “must not give in to political pressure” to approve a deferral resolution being pushed by African states.
  • The UN council’s vote on deferral of the ICC cases was scheduled to take place on Friday, but the resolution is unlikely to win the nine votes it requires to pass.

NEW YORK

An international rights group has urged the UN Security Council to reject a proposal to defer Kenyan cases in The Hague.

Amnesty International on Wednesday said the council “must not give in to political pressure” to approve a deferral resolution being pushed by African states.

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Separately, an influential US senator warned against forcing a divisive vote at the Security Council on the resolution, which seeks to defer the cases facing President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto in The Hague.

“I strongly oppose a vote on this matter at the UN,” declared Senator Chris Coons, chairman of the US Senate’s Africa affairs sub-committee.
“The move is divisive and sends a chilling signal of impunity for perpetrators of political violence,” he added.

UNLIKELY DECISION

Underlying the significance of his stance, the US Senate last week unanimously approved a resolution he had sponsored that reaffirmed US support for the government and people of Kenya.

The UN council’s vote on deferral of the ICC cases was scheduled to take place on Friday, but the resolution is unlikely to win the nine votes it requires to pass.

Tawanda Hondora, an Amnesty International officer, cautioned, in an interview, that “we might be surprised because these are political issues.”

The rights group’s deputy director of law and policy, said the council should reject the resolution because “victims of the 2007-2008 violence have waited too long for justice.”

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