Births, anniversaries, sporting triumphs and even victories on the battlefield are always a good excuse for celebration. And so it was for the African Union (formerly Organisation of African Unity) in Addis Ababa.
The umbrella congregation that sought to not just find common purpose and synergies among newly-independent African nation-states as well as agitate for the breaking of the yoke of colonialism from others, turned 50 this past week.
A million dollars worth of epochal celebration saw the 54-member AU presidents and other heads of government mark this important and fitting milestone.
Development partners, former colonial powers and other stakeholders were invited to share in the glory. However, all speeches on the importance of economic liberation, the quest for democracy and the importance of brotherhood were laced heavily with finger-pointing. The enemy in the massive celebration hall was the International Criminal Court, based at The Hague in The Netherlands.
All speakers termed the ICC an evil genie that had become the scourge of African presidents and that sought to emasculate and shackle their attempts at emancipation and had become a pothole on the highway of progress.
While there appears some truth in the accusation since it seems ICC’s largest ‘clients’ are African leaders, the ICC was categorical that theirs is a purely judicial process that indicts leaders accused of involvement in genocidal acts, breeding negative ethnicity and crimes against humanity.
The thrust of the African case was full of contempt for the Rome Statute that saw nations voluntarily sign up to the Protocol. But the conspiracy theorists see this as insincere since the so-called Great Powers USA, China and Russia are not members of the court.
However, a sustained refrain by the gathered African leadership that the UN Security Council refer the Kenyan cases back to a local mechanism under the Principle of Reciprocity appears to have hit a wall. All past such calls have not been supported by revision of individual national laws to allow this to become a reality.
There is no group membership or ratification of the ICC covenant, so there can be no mass walk-out. Should any state wish to withdraw, let that member stop the posturing at such collective gathering and follow a purely judicial path, devoid of politics.
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