The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the premier example of using international law to fight human rights violations. The Court’s prestige is very important, because it does not have enforcement powers, only symbolic power. If countries respect the ICC they will help it bring criminals to justice, otherwise the Court will have no teeth.
For this reason it is crucial that people see the ICC as an unbiased arbiter of justice. Unfortunately there is a spreading view that perhaps the ICC has “an Africa problem”. I was surprised to learn, for example, the Court is “currently pursuing more cases in Africa than in all other world regions combined“. There is no way that Africa has more than half of all the dictators and human rights violators on Earth. Critics claim that the ICC is a tool of imperialism.
Kerim Can Kavakli 