TJP

The International Court only Prosecutes Leaders of Weak Nations

By Byron A Ellis - July 14, 2008

The US Code collection defines war crimes as “when the United States is a party to such Protocol, willfully kills or causes serious injury to civilians.” The Rome Statutes of the International Criminal Court (the Statute) established a permanent International Criminal Court (the Court) with power to exercise its jurisdiction over persons for serious crimes of international concerns. The seat of the court is in The Hague, Netherlands.

Crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court are the crime of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression.

Sudanese President Omar Hassam al-Bashir may be facing charges of genocide. Article 6 of the Statute defines genocide as any of the following acts: (a) killing members of the group, (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, and (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Article 7 of the Statute involves crimes against humanity, which includes deportation or forcible transfer of population, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law, torture, persecution against identifiable group, enforced disappearance of persons, the crime of apartheid, other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering.

Article 8 of the Statute relates to war crimes. The Statute defines war crimes as breaches of the Geneva Convention of August 1949 and includes willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, willfully causing great suffering, extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justify by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, willfully depriving prisoner of war or other protected person of the right of a fair and regular trial, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement, and so on.

Clearly if al-Bashir is a candidate for the Court, many more contemporary leaders are equally guilty of violating the Statute. For instance, the former South African apartheid leaders, the current Israeli apartheid leaders, the Zimbabwe leadership under Mugabe, and members within the US coalition that authorized torture.

Given clear and unambiguous statutes, all violators of the Statue should be prosecuted equally. The Court cannot cherry pick which violators it should prosecute, to do so undermine its credibility as an impartial arbiter.

In the eyes of the world, an international court that only prosecutes leaders of poor nations cannot be valid, or respected.

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