In nearly a decade of the International Criminal Court only Africans have been tried for what are considered the worst atrocities on earth! Genocides, warcrimes and other crimes against humanity are all targets of the court but many have attacked it as another criteria seems that you have to be African!

Many have called for European and Americans to be tried such as Tony Blair And George W Bush for their involvement in the Iraq War.

And now Burundi and South Africa have announced they are leaving, leading to speculation that many other nations will follow.

Burundi have been accused of leaving to avoid coming under the court’s microscope after a year of political violence and South Africa have claimed they are leaving essentially for the criticism that the court only targets Africans.

The ICC was setup in 2002 as a last resort, when countries wouldn’t deal with people that should have been tried. However African after African has been tried through the court leading to this very fair criticism. Simply, it’s hard to deny that it’s racist.

Now, it’s not easy to rebrand a damaged ship and surely we have to learn from this experiment. The idea of the ICC is good for humanity but as is always the case, the powers that be control such things.

The African Union may well end up setting up their own version of the ICC and I suggest the “west” follow suit and then these two organisations can work to co-operate and grow partnership…. Rather than the current approach of the west’s court reprimanding Africa!

What do you think?

Read more about why the ICC has only really targeted Africans here.

The ICC has investigated many non-African nations, including Colombia, Venezuela and more. To my knowledge and research, no European nations have been investigated. Wikiepedia explains the court and it’s history in more detail here.