Group rejects AU’s call for ICC exit

A group of African and international nongovernmental organisations have called on the African Union (AU) to shelve the plan for a call for mass withdrawal of its members from the International Criminal Court (ICC). A press statement issued by the Nigerian Coalition for the International Criminal Court (NCICC), said the AU in January decided to […]

A group of African and international nongovernmental organisations have called on the African Union (AU) to shelve the plan for a call for mass withdrawal of its members from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
A press statement issued by the Nigerian Coalition for the International Criminal Court (NCICC), said the AU in January decided to mandate its Open-Ended Committee on the ICC to develop a comprehensive strategy that includes withdrawal from the ICC.
“The work of the Open-Ended Committee on the ICC is the latest development in a backlash against the ICC by some African leaders focused on charges that the ICC is unfairly targeting Africa,” NCICC said.
The coalition believed that AU’s efforts to undermine the only permanent criminal court for victims of atrocities are fundamentally at odds with the AU’s rejection of impunity.
The statement signed by Chinonye Obiagwu, the Chairman Steering Committee of the coalition said one of the three conditions the AU’s Open-Ended Committee on the ICC set at its April 11 meeting for remaining in the ICC is “immunity under the ICC’s Rome Statute for sitting heads of state and heads of government and senior government officials.”
Obiagwu said this “blanket immunity for sitting heads of state has never been available before international criminal courts dealing with crimes under international law.”