JOHANNESBURG, March 8 (ANA) – Even though South Africa has withdrawn its intention to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC) in order to take the matter to Parliament for consideration, the country’s retired jurists on Wednesday vowed to campaign to have the African National Congress-led government stay at the international court.
Retired Constitutional Court Judge Zak Yacoob, who, along with fellow judges and the International Commission of Jurists, made a submission to Parliament’s justice portfolio opposing the withdrawal from ICC, said South Africa remaining at the court was “of paramount importance”.
“That letter of a revoke doesn’t take this matter too far, because obviously now [government] will not go ahead with the improper withdrawal process that had been started. Parliament will now take a decision and then the withdrawal process will go ahead…my view and I think it is that of my colleagues is that that does not help us, South Africa withdrawing properly is not the issue we’re concerned with…our issue is that South Africa should not withdraw from ICC at all,” he told reporters in Johannesburg.
South Africa informed the United Nations (UN) on Tuesday night that it was revoking its intention to withdraw its signatory to the ICC founding treaty, the Rome Statute, after the high court ruled that such action by government was invalid and unconstitutional. The matter was brought to court by the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).
Last October, Justice Minister Michael Masutha announced Cabinet’s decision to withdraw from ICC. A letter of withdrawal was sent to the United Nations Secretary-General explaining the intention to leave the court. In light of the revoke of intention to withdraw, the matter would be taken to Parliament where the process to withdraw would now formally begin.
Yacoob said the fact that jurists had made such a submission to the committee was an indication that the signatories were not cynical about the country’s political processes.
“We could be cynical and say whatever we do, Parliament will pass the bill anyway, or we could have faith in the democratic process and believe that Parliament will take all matters into consideration…there is no point in shouting from the sidelines, we thought this was important for Parliament to address.”
He said the jurists reminded Parliament in their submission about the circumstances through which the ICC was established, the country’s role in that process, and its belief in the importance of international criminal justice.
“We made a point that SA was one of the founding members of the ICC and signed the Rome Statute on the day it was adopted on 17 July 1998, and rectified Rome Statute on 27 of November. It was Dullah Omar, who was minister of justice at the time the statute was adopted, and made appropriate comments on the day, reiterating the importance of the court. It was somewhat ironic that Dullah Omar made that important statement and that somehow the unwinding of this process came about as a result of our relationship with another Omar… [Sudanese president] Omar al-Bashir,” he said.
As a member of the ICC, South Africa was under legal obligation to arrest the Sudanese leader when he attended an AU summit in Johannesburg in 2015, but did not do so and allowed him to leave the country and return to Sudan. Calls to government to leave the ICC grew after the Al-Bashir debacle. The Sudanese president has been wanted since 2009 by international prosecutors to face charges of crimes against humanity.
Other signatories to the submission to Parliament included retired Constitutional Court justices Richard Goldstone, Yvonne Mokgoro, Laurie Ackermann, Johan Kriegler, Kate O’Regan and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former ICC justice Navi Pillay.
– African News Agency (ANA)
