Stay and fix the ICC, African Union hopeful urges peers

African states unhappy with the International Criminal Court (ICC) should work to reform it from within rather than pulling out, Botswanan foreign minister Pelomoni Venson-Moitoi, a candidate to become the next African Union (AU) chief, said. With the AU increasingly divided over the ICC, South Africa announced last week that it planned to quit, but […]

African states unhappy with the International Criminal Court (ICC) should work to reform it from within rather than pulling out, Botswanan foreign minister Pelomoni Venson-Moitoi, a candidate to become the next African Union (AU) chief, said.
With the AU increasingly divided over the ICC, South Africa announced last week that it planned to quit, but Venson-Moitoi said she believed an African war crimes court could be beefed up to work alongside its Hague-based counterpart.
“I don’t see why we should be pulling out. The good thing is that a few more members now, within the AU, agree that pulling out is not the solution. We should be working towards fixing,” she said.
After she spoke, Gambia said late on Tuesday it too was withdrawing from the ICC, calling it “an International Caucasian Court for the persecution and humiliation of people of color, especially Africans”