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| A general view shows delegates attending the 50th African Union Anniversary Summit in Addis Ababa on May 25, 2013 (Photo Credit: Press TV). |
African leaders through their justice ministers and attorney generals are
creeping their feet towards considering a draft protocol that would give
leaders immunity on grave crimes against humanity.
These justice ministers and attorney generals of the AU are scheduled to
meet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
May 15-16 to consider a draft protocol to expand the authority of the African
Court on Justice and Human Rights to include
criminal jurisdiction over genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Also, a proposal providing immunity for heads of state and senior government
officials from prosecution for such crimes is being considered as part of the
amended protocol.
But African human rights organisations from 19 countries and a host of
international human rights organisations working in Africa have said the plan to give immunity to sitting
government leaders before the Court would be a major setback for justice for
grave crimes.
They said the plan would also harm the regional court in a letter to African governments on Monday.
AU’s shocking move follows strident attacks on the International Criminal
Court, ICC, by some African leaders who accused it of a witch-hunt. It also
came amid ICC proceedings against Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, Kenya’s president and vice
president.
Some African leaders have also considered withdrawing their countries
membership of the ICC, a court that does not recognise immunity for sitting
presidents wanted for crimes against their own people.
Sulemana Braimah, executive director of the Media Foundation for West
Africa, said exempting sitting heads of state and senior government officials
from African Court jurisdiction on grave crimes would shield the powerful from
the reach of the law.
“This is fundamentally at odds with the AU Constitutive Act, which rejects
impunity,” Braimah said.
Thuso Ramabolu, a human rights officer at Lesotho’s Transformation Resource
Centre, said:“Impunity remains one of the biggest threats to human rights
protection in Africa.
“It’s crucial for people responsible for mass atrocities to face justice,
irrespective of their official positions. Immunity poses grave alarm and would
create an incentive to hold on to power indefinitely.”
Immunity with respect to serious crimes is also barred before some domestic
courts in Africa, but some countries have disempowered their local courts to
ensure they cannot try sitting presidents. The ICC remains the last resorts for
victims of crimes against humanity to get justice.
The programme manager at the Kenyan Section of the International Commission
of Jurists said even domestic law in Kenya and South Africa bars immunity for
sitting officials before domestic courts on grave crimes.
“African governments should not roll back important progress in ensuring
perpetrators can be held to account,” Stella Ndirangu said.
International law and impunity
International conventions signed by African countries, including the Convention against Torture,
the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the Geneva Conventions
of 1949 recognize the imperative of accountability for grave crimes
irrespective of the title or position of those responsible.
Also, the irrelevance of official capacity before international criminal
courts has become entrenched in international law since the post-World War II
trials before the International Military
Tribunal at Nuremberg.
Right groups have endorsed the letter urging African leaders not to entrench
impunity in Africa.
Written by Modou S. Joof
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