African exodus from ICC must be stopped, former UN chief Kofi Annan says

The apparent African exodus from the international criminal court must be stopped or the most heinous crimes will be allowed to go unpunished, Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general and one of the ICC’s chief architects, has warned.

Burundi, Gambia and South Africa said this year they would no longer recognise the court’s jurisdiction and announced their intention to quit. They claim the ICC disproportionately targets African leaders. Nine of the 10 cases taken by the court have involved former African rulers.

Annan’s intervention is designed to influence the annual meeting of the Assembly of States Parties, whose members are signatories to the ICC. He warned the actions of the three African countries risked giving the false impression the entire continent was hostile to the court.

Annan was pivotal to the court’s creation when he was UN secretary general, hosting the inaugural conference in Rome in 1998.

Writing in The Guardian, he says: “Most of the continent’s democratic governments stand by the ICC. I stand by the ICC, because the most heinous crimes must not go unpunished.”