BLUNTING THE RACIST IMAGE AND AGENDA OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC): THE SITUATIONS IN UKRAINE AND PALESTINE

Abstract

Early ICC investigations into Situations in Africa, referred by State Parties thereto, non-State Parties, the United Nations’ Security Council and initiated by the ICC Prosecutor proprio motu, succeeded in portraying the ICC as having a racist agenda, targeting Africans and African leaders, and reduced it to a neo-colonial tool designed and deployed by the Global North as part of its agenda to access and extort Africa’s resources. The merits of such perceptions have been contested by scholars in the social sciences, activists in the broader civil society, and statesmen. They have fuelled anti-ICC sentiments and movements which ultimately, assaulted the credibility of the institution. However, recent situations investigated by the ICC have been out of the African continent, which suggest that the ICC is gradually blunting its racist and anti-Africans/African leaders’ agenda and image. In view of various dynamics such as their broader international relations network, incumbency, superpower status, and member of the United Nations’ Security Council, the indictments of Benjamin Netanyahu (Israeli Prime Minister) and Vladimir Putin (Russian President), the ICC is transmitting a message that egregious crimes, irrespective of where they are committed and who the perpetrators are, it will warrant investigations into them and indict those who bear individual criminal responsibility. Taking an evidence-based approach, the paper argues that the ICC is effectively blunting that image as it has stretched into investigations in numerous non-African countries.