ANC To Withdraw SA From ICC
In a controversial move, South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress, has said that it plans to withdraw South Africa from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
A deputy minister made the announcement yesterday, saying that the party feels that the ICC has “lost its direction.”
The announcement comes soon after South Africa, and in particular the ANC, was criticised with their handling of the Sudanese president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. al-Bashir was allowed to freely leave the country earlier in the year, when South Africa (and the ANC) blatantly ignored a court order to detain him.
The ANC came under intense scrutiny from the ICC and various world powers when they failed to arrest al-Bashir in South Africa and hand him over to the ICC.
al-Bashir currently stands accused of genocide and war crimes and a court order to arrest him is issued. Despite this fact, South Africa failed to detain him and he was free to go.
The ANC said that the ICC supports “powerful nations” who trample human rights and pursue selfish interests.
They continued saying that they will, however, still support human rights:
“…[sic] South Africa still holds the flag of human rights, we are not lowering it,”
