The Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, has called for a concerted effort to strengthen the International Criminal Court (ICC) to provide ready access to justice for victims of crimes against humanity.
She stressed that the complementary support the ICC offered to the various domestic legal systems ought to be recognised.
“Perpetrators of crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes should not be allowed to hide behind domestic legal systems. They should know that the long arm of the law will catch up with them in one way or another: domestic as a first option, international if that option is clearly available,” she posited. Conference
Mrs Justice Wood made the call when she addressed the closing ceremony of a two-day conference to deliberate on issues that had promoted suspicion and skepticism of the work of the ICC in Accra last Friday.
The conference, which was on the theme: “The International Criminal Court and Africa: A Discussion on Legitimacy, Impunity, Selectivity, Fairness and Accountability”, was organised by the Faculty of Law of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).
The conference was necessitated by the seeming focus of the ICC on Africa which had led to the belief that the court engaged in selective justice and, therefore, disregarded serious crimes taking place in other regions of the world.
Twenty-three cases in 10 situations have been brought before the ICC and nine out of the 10 situations related to events that occurred in Africa.
Mrs Justice Wood, therefore, wondered whether that meant the ICC was targeting Africa and said there was the need for a dispassionate examination of all the factual, jurisdictional and other legal issues before arriving at a conclusion.
Rule of law
The ICC, she noted, was guided by the rule of law and that its basic law was the Rome Statute from which the court derived its mandate.
“The ICC must be the frontline defender of the rule of law and consequently it must not act ultra vires or in excess of its jurisdiction. It must only do what the Rome Statute allows it to do. Its jurisdiction is limited and defined by the statute.
“Selectivity will, therefore, not appear to be a deliberate choice of the ICC, rather the result of jurisdictional and other legal resource limitations,” she contended.
The Chief Justice urged an examination of the options for expanding the jurisdictional scope of the ICC and asked all states to ratify the Rome Statute to strengthen the ICC to reach out to all victims of crimes against humanity.
Democracy
In the long term, Mrs Justice Wood stressed the need for Africa to build strong democracies and credible governance institutions, particularly human rights and law enforcement agencies.
“Robust justice institutions must engage our urgent attention. We must yearn for and nurture men and women imbued with a high sense of integrity and fidelity to the rule of law to man these institutions if we must avoid institutions such as the ICC,” she said.
She said it was the corporate responsibility of Africa and its leadership to take concrete steps that would ensure that international crimes were prevented altogether or the perpetrators faced the consequences of their actions.
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