Critique of the International Criminal Court by African States

This essay evaluates the critiques of the International Criminal Court (ICC) by African states for their inappropriate behavior against African states from the perspective of different dimensions. The ICC has been accused of targeting African states unfairly and declining to investigate crimes committed in other countries. The critique of the actions of ICC is based on sociological legitimacy, morality, and legality. However, the argument against the court has been weak enough to put a charge against the court for such inappropriateness.

Evaluate the critique of
the International
Criminal Court ICC by
African states

Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..............................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
The international criminal court is one of the body of United Nations which deals with
the cases against the individuals in case of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes as
well as crimes of aggression1. This essay will deal with the critiques of International criminal
court by the African states for their inappropriate behavior against African state from the
perspective of different dimensions.
MAIN BODY
The international Criminal court has been accused of targeting the African states unfairly.
This court was established in the year 2002 and is the permanent court which has the power for
prosecuting the individuals in case of war crimes, genocide, crimes of aggression and crime
against humanity. The acquisition on the International Criminal Court for the unbiased behavior
towards African state was on hike from the year 2009 when the president of Africa was arrested.
This is considered as the first case wherein the head of the state was issued the warrant of arrest.
The indictment of the president was the first time when the case was being referred to
International Criminal Court by united nation. Before this case, every case was referred to the
court by the member states before ICC2. The court has been also accused of opposing the effort
by the government of Africa for avoiding the involvement of ICC in many situations. Moreover
this has also declined for investigating the crimes which was committed in Venezuela as well as
by British soldiers in the Iraq. This has led to the charges among the political leaders of Africa
which resulted that ICC is in appropriately targeting the state. The critique of the actions of ICC
is based on sociological legitimacy, morality as well as legality. Firstly the critics have accused
the court of being acting immorally through discrimination against the African state in order to
decline investigation and prosecution in many situations however the evidentiary basis for this
claim is very weak. Secondly the critics have also claimed that ICC have also failed to respect
sovereignty of Africa which comes under the legal claim. This was claimed on the fact that the
1 Clark, Phil. Distant Justice: The Impact of the International Criminal Court on African Politics.
Cambridge University Press, 2018.
2 Bassiouni, M. Cherif, and William A. Schabas, eds. The Legislative History of the International Criminal
Court: Introduction, Analysis, and Integrated Text (3 vols). Brill, 2021.

court failed to respect the international law which governs the immunity of head of the state and
prohibits the prosecution of it even for international crimes. Thirdly the sociological claim is one
of the strongest argument wherein the substantial evidence have suggested that the perception of
fairness of ICC has been suffered in some of the audiences of Africa. However in order to assess
the validity of these charges, it is very important to deconstruct the word inappropriate. The
claim on ICC for the inappropriate behavior against African state is considered on the basis of 3
interrelated dimensions which are legal, sociological as well as moral but the focus of ICC on the
Africa is neither morally nor legally inappropriate but it threatens to undermining the perception
of the court’s fairness (Is the ICC Targeting Africa Inappropriately? A Moral, Legal, and
Sociological Assessment, 2022).
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from this essay that the ICC is considered as the permanent court for
prosecuting the individuals against criminal charges at international level. The international
criminal court is accused by the African states for inappropriate behavior on the basis of three
dimensions which are legal, moral and sociological but their argument against the court has been
weak enough to put a charge against the court for such inappropriateness.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Clark, Phil. Distant Justice: The Impact of the International Criminal Court on African Politics.
Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Bassiouni, M. Cherif, and William A. Schabas, eds. The Legislative History of the International
Criminal Court: Introduction, Analysis, and Integrated Text (3 vols). Brill, 2021.
Online
Is the ICC Targeting Africa Inappropriately? A Moral, Legal, and Sociological Assessment,
2022 [Online] Available Through
<https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004304451/B9789004304451-s040.xml>