AFRICAN CRIMINAL COURT

• • Neither the United States, China nor Russia are members of The Court, yet the UNSC has the power to refer situations to The Court or defer The Court’s investigations or prosecutions. 
  • The only UNSC referrals to date have been of African situations, Darfur in 2005 and Libya in 2011. 
  • The UNSC exerts great power over The Court and the permanent five members can exercise their veto to prevent investigations into their own crimes. 
  • This creates a situation where non-African cases have been less frequent, despite being just as deserving of The Court’s scrutiny.
• • The Office of the Prosecutor set six strategic goals for the 2019-2021 period, including increasing prosecution success in court and achieving improved efficiency of preliminary examinations and investigations. 
  • Karim Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, has said that her term as Prosecutor saw several “accomplishments”. 
  • Counted among the successes were the prosecutions of more African nationals in the Al Mahdi and Ntaganda cases. 
• • However, these high-profile prosecutions do not detract from the fact that a significant number of non-African situations remain in the preliminary examination stage.
• Many African nations have accused the ICC of disproportionately targeting the African continent. Of the court’s more than two dozen cases, all have dealt with alleged crimes in African states. 

  • In 2016, the African Union backed a proposal led by Kenya for a mass withdrawal, though the vote was largely symbolic. Still, in Kenya and elsewhere, the court maintains broad public support. CFR’s Gavin writes that the opposition of many African leaders to the ICC “is not necessarily aligned with the desire of many Africans for fairness and accountability.”