On African Opposition to the International Criminal Court

In this picture, there are at least two African leaders who risk prosecution by the ICC. Guess who?

Now in its thirteenth year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) continues to face accusations that it is unfairly biased towards African countries. Created by the Rome Statute in 2002 following a century of well-documented atrocities ranging from the Holocaust to Srebrenica to the Rwandan Genocide, the ICC was founded on the noble principle that the world would never again allow genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression to go unpunished. The court, based in the Hague, has the authority to step in, investigate and prosecute such crimes in states "unable" or "unwilling" to do so themselves.

Distressed over the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and the traumas of apartheid, African countries were some of the earliest supports of the ICC; however, since 2006, African support for the court has wavered and has been replaced with accusations of selective prosecution and bias. 

Last year, at an African Union summit in Equatorial Guinea (a country that has its own fair share of human rights abuses), African heads of state and officials voted to grant sitting leaders and senior officials immunity from prosecution.

Earlier this week, the ruling party of South Africa, a country noted its famously progressive and rights-heavy Constitution, announced its plans to leave the ICC. Obed Bapela, an deputy minister and member of the African National Congress (ANC), said the ICC had “lost its direction” and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) wanted to withdraw the country from the court. According to Bapela, "South Africa still holds the flag of human rights, we are not lowering it.” This declaration comes on the heels of recent criticism following  Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir's visit to South Africa. Despite being the subject of an international warrant following accusations of genocide and war crimes,When al-Bashir was permitted to leave South Africa although thee was a South Africa court order to detain him.

Some points that African detractors of the ICC often raise and my counter-points:

1. "The ICC has only opened investigations in African countries." The ICC does not only investigate African war crimes. The court is also conducting preliminary examinations in a number of countries including Afghanistan, Georgia, Colombia, Honduras, and Korea. Moreover, of the 8 investigations that the ICC has opened, 5 of the 8 cases before the court (Uganda, DRC, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast and Mali) have been self-referrals. In Kenya, the Kibaki government agreed to the prosecution at the urging of the former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian who mediated the end of Kenya’s post-election chaos. The court does not open investigations where credible national investigations or prosecutions are already taking place, but in many African countries, where there are often weak judicial systems, such credible investigations typically do not take place. 
2. "The ICC doesn't prosecute cases in Western countries." Only countries that are signatories to the Rome Statute can be prosecuted for war crimes. The United States is not currently a signatory to the Rome Statute. This line of thinking is therefore irrelevant. 
3. "The court is a neocolonial, imperialist puppet." Take a look at the court's composition. The chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, is Gambian. The president, Silvia Alejandra Fernández de Gurmendi, is Argentinian. Her predecessor, Song Sang-hyun, was South Korean. Sidiki Kaba, the former Minister of Justice of Senegal, is the current President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Kaba was elected as a consensus candidate from the African States Parties. 
   
   In the case of Sudan, which has drawn the ire of many African heads of state, there is little doubt that crimes against humanity were committed in Darfur with al-Bashir’s knowledge and approval. In 2004, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the AU’s human rights body, found that Sudan's attacks on the civilian population qualified as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

For South Africa to oppose the ICC is to pander to pan-Africanism in the name of shielding dictators and heads of state who act without impunity. The ICC has admittedly had its fair share of stumbling blocks, but such experiences are typical of a new and growing organization. After all, Rome (and the Rome Statute) wasn't built in a day. Idealism must be coupled with patience. 

Despite the ANC's declaration, South Africa is still unlikely to leave the ICC. When the rainbow nation adopted the Rome Statute in 2002, it created the "ICC Act" (Act 27 of 2002). The preamble of the Act addresses South Africa's commitment to address atrocities in light of its history of apartheid:

MINDFUL that –
Throughout the history of human-kind, millions of children, women and men have suffered as a result of atrocities which constitute the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression in terms of international law;

the Republic of South Africa, with its own history of atrocities, has, since 1994, become an integral and accepted member of the community of nations; 

the Republic of South Africa is committed to – bringing persons who commit such atrocities to justice, either in a court of law of the Republic in terms of its domestic laws where possible, pursuant to its international obligations to do so when the Republic became party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.... carrying out its other obligations in terms of the said Statute.

In order to exit the ICC, South Africa would need to repeal its domestic law, after which its president would be required to write a letter of withdrawal from the Statute to the Secretary General of the United Nations and await its ratification. Given the long nature of this process, it is unlikely that South Africa will withdraw its support despite ANC declarations to the contrary. 

If African leaders truly want to stop cases from being tried in front of the ICC, they must develop more robust national judicial systems and demonstrate capacity through a strong African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights, which has the power to prosecute regional cases. 

Saving Mirabel (Ayiba)

Originally published in Ayiba Magazine

Sexual assault is a traumatic event that disproportionately affects young women worldwide. The World Health Organization finds that one in every five women is a victim of sexual assault. Across the world, 35% of women have experienced either sexual or physical intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence. Women in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast report the highest rates of sexual violence.

In Africa, 5 – 15% of women report forced or coerced sexual experiences, but the vast majority of survivors do not receive treatment or seek justice due to social stigma or a lack of support from law enforcement. Since 2013, Lagos’ Mirabel Centre, Nigeria’s first sexual assault referral centre, has helped fill the gap by supporting survivors of rape and sexual assault. The Mirabel Centre provides medical examination and treatment services for survivors as well as counseling and information on the Nigerian legal system. All services at the Centre are free and confidential.

Nigerian NGO Partnership for Justice set up Mirabel with support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID), however in the next few months, the Centre may close as their funding comes to an end.

To help the Mirabel keep its doors open for years to come, visit their Go Fund Me page. It costs about $50 to help one survivor, and $5000 will serve 100 women. Every dollar raises helps test, feed, and counsel all who walk through the centre’s doors seeking support. Raising funds in excess of the campaign’s target will help the Mirabel ensure long-term stability.

Ben Okri on "The Spirit of Africa's people"

I call Africans entrepreneurs of the everyday. Operating in an environment of risk breeds ingenuity. My favorite quote from today touches on that way of thinking:

"The African spirit is fundamentally a creative one. It is an aspect of ourselves I don’t think we have fully grasped. We tend to use it negatively: in crises, in difficulties, on the very edges of necessity. But this creativity of the African spirit, used proactively, in sport, in culture, in business, in education, will be the beginning of the African transformation." - Ben Okri

Read more via The Guardian.

Indochina vs. Syria: Approaches to The Migrant and Refugee Crisis

Day by day, it appears that the migrant and refugee crisis in the Mediterranean grows larger. Last week, the horror seems to multiply as 71 migrants were found dead in the back of a lorry on an Austrian highway and a 3-year-old boy was found lifeless on a Turkish beach.

In the face of these tragedies, I find myself wondering why policymakers have failed to act on the moral imperative to assist people fleeing war and devastation. A few months ago, I wrote about how the world could follow the resettlement model adopted during the Indochina refugee crisis of the 50s and 60s. I've struggled to understand why we have not implemented similar policies, but this blog post by Dr. Christopher Phillips, Senior Lecturer in the International Relations of the Middle East at Queen Mary, University of London and Associate Fellow at the Chatham House Middle East and North Africa program, illuminates the complex reasons why the world has hesitated to follow the model deployed in Indochina many years ago.

I encourage you to read the post in its entirety, but here's one standout passage: 

Why were western states willing to resettle four times as many Indochinese refugees a year in 1979 as they have been willing to house in total from Syria? Westerners are no worse off or less capable of hosting refugees than they were in the late 70s. Taking arguably the worst offender, Britain, as an example, the economic situation then was not dissimilar to now. In 1979-82 Britain suffered a recession, far worse than the sluggish growth it has faced during the height of the Syria refugee crisis (2012-15). GDP per capita averaged $9k, comparable in today’s prices to the $40k it averaged in 2012-15, while unemployment averaged 7.5%, compared to 7.3% in 2012-15. In another parallel, in May 1979 a Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher came to power on a platform of rolling back the state, one seemingly emulated by David Cameron and George Osbourne today. Yet that government accepted nearly 25,000 Indochinese refugees, compared to 197 from Syria now.

Update: As of 7 September 2015, Britain has agreed to accept 20,000 refugees from Syria by 2020. Germany will spend 6.6 billion to cope with 800,000 migrants and refugees.

The Ugly Truth of Service Discrimination in Ghana (The Daily Graphic/My Joy Online/Ghanaian Observer)

A few days ago, I had an unfortunate experience with racism in a local Ghanaian grocery store. Tired of hearing stories of service discrimination against black Africans in Africa, I decided to write something. The piece below was published in print edition of The Ghanaian Observer and on the My Joy Online website on Friday, September 4, and in The Graphic on Saturday, September 5. 

Growing up in the United States, I have been catcalled and demeaned with many a racial epithet. I have experienced everything from being spat at and called the n-word to having my intelligence belittled due to the color of my skin. When I moved to Ghana earlier this year, I was naïve enough to think that I would no longer be forced to endure such mortifying racial incidents. A few days ago, I was proven wrong.

As an African from the diaspora returning to the continent, I expected to feel at home in Ghana, a hub of black excellence that has birthed heavyweights like Kofi Annan, David Adjaye, Taiye Selasi, and so many more. In Ghana, I never thought my blackness would make me a target of negativity, but I was proven wrong a few days ago at Saagar Impex Supermarket, a small Indian specialty grocery store in Osu. After a long day at work, I went into the store to buy some chickpeas. When I entered the store, I was immediately followed. None of the white or Indian patrons received the same amount of attention.

“Do you want a basket?” one of the employees asked. “No,” I replied. After all, I was only going to buy a few things. My response seemed to invite further scrutiny.

I picked up three cans, browsed through the rest of the store then decided to put one can down where I had picked it up. I walked to the counter to buy the other two.

After paying for the chickpeas, I left the store to buy some vegetables at the stand outside. As I walked away, one of the employees of the store ran out to demand I come back into the store. “Madame wants to see you, “ he said.

Confused, I re-entered the store only to have the storeowner declare that she “knew I took something" and demand to see my purse. You could have heard a pin drop as everyone watched. My mind was racing. Did she really think I would bother to steal a 5 cedi can of chickpeas? As the only black patron in a store full of white and Indian customers, did my skin color make me automatically more likely to steal? Too stunned to cause a scene, I handed over my purse for inspection.

Of course, she didn't find anything inside but a few personal items and the 2 cans she had just sold me. Face flushed and embarrassed, I said, "I am no thief and I demand an apology."

Her response? "Well, I don't know" followed by a tense period of silence. I waited until I realized that was all she had to say before informing her I would never come to her store again and leaving the premises.

As I shared this humiliating story with friends and family, it became increasingly apparent that my story is not unique. There are far too many tales in Ghana and across the African continent of people of African descent experiencing service discrimination or being subjected to racially motivated speech. In 2011, an Italian-run Ghanaian seafood restaurant in Accra was under investigation for operating a “white only policy.” Earlier this year in Kenya, a Chinese restaurant in Nairobi was shut down after its “no black policy” was exposed. For years, friends and family members travelling to South Africa have re-counted numerous incidents of being treated as second class citizens, a reality underscored by the 2011 hashtag #CapeTownIsRacist. Prominent black singers, comedians and other black Cape Town tweeted their experiences with racism in Cape Town, South Africa’s most famous tourist destination. These tweets are unsurprising in light of the fact that the South African President once described Cape Town as a “racist place” with an “extremely apartheid system.”

My experience as well as the experiences of the many people who have sent me messages in the past few days has underscored the urgent need for initiatives like the International Decade for People of African Descent, one of the UN’s priority themes for the next ten years. Part of the objective of the Decade is to recognize ongoing discrimination and promote respect for people of African descent, who continue to be disrespected across the world. I never thought this discrimination would occur in Ghana, a country which is almost 97% black, but my experiences yesterday suggest that racism continues even in what would typically be deemed an unlikely place.

As black people in Africa and its diaspora advocate for policies and programs that combat discrimination worldwide, we must first begin to agitate for change at home by making it loud and clear that such all types of discrimination – including black-on-black discrimination – are unacceptable. 

We also must acknowledge the sad truth that other races are not the only ones to perpetrate discrimination. Many black people further entrench cultures of disrespect by treating their own as inferior. This was underscored by the participation of Saagar’s black employees in my public humiliation as they followed me, and then idly stood by at my maltreatment by their employer. I have also seen it through the difference in the customer service I have received versus that of my white expatriate friends. I am often told to “be patient and wait” while white colleagues and friends are served more quickly and with significantly more respect.

While racism in the context of the United States is commonly understood to be a system that systematically advances and favors some while subjugating others politically, economically and socially, these dynamics also exist in Ghana, albeit sometimes less visibly. This reality is particularly tragic in Ghana, where although most of the population is black, Ghanaians still favor many Indians, Lebanese, Chinese and white expatriates over other black Ghanaians in the context of service provision.

Needless to say, no matter how much I crave naan or my favorite spices, I will never set foot in that establishment again. 

Motherland Moguls: Meet the 2015 She Leads Africa Finalists

While Sub Saharan Africa has the highest rate of female entrepreneurship across the world (27%), these businesses are typically one-woman enterprises with a small consumer base. Social enterprise She Leads Africa is helping solve the problem by identifying and training high-growth African female entrepreneurs. After a pitch competition with 400 applicants from over 30 countries, SLA founders Yasmin Belo-Osagie and Afua Osei have selected six early-stage entrepreneurs who will compete on September 26, 2015 for a $10,000 prize, direct access to investors and international media attention.

A few days ago I was lucky enough to get the chance to do short profiles of the 2015 She Leads Africa finalists. Ayiba Magazine has been one of SLA's media partners since the organization first launched its pitch competition.

Read more about this year's dynamic finalists via the Ayiba website.