The Director of the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy (LECIAD) Prof J.A.N Mensah-Bonsu has described as inconceivable the old-age rhetoric that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is deliberately targeting African heads of state.
For years there has been a series of complaints that the ICC is biased, compelling some African leaders to denounce the tribunal as an “instrument of colonial justice.”
Of the 10 cases being investigated by the court as at October 2016, nine involved African countries including all three trials. And also, all the tribunal’s arrest warrants had only been issued for African countries.
This has led to countries like the Gambia, Burundi and South Africa to announce their decision to quit the court.
But speaking Monday October 2, 2017, in an exclusive interview with Starr News’ Atiewin Mbillah-Lawson, Prof. Mensah-Bonsu dismissed the bias claims as untenable saying: “There seem to be consistent efforts to undermine the credibility of the ICC.”
She continued: “Africa claims to have issues with the way the court has exercised its mandate. But nobody has said that they have made up cases against Africans. Africans recognize that they have the largest peace keeping missions. Africans recognize that most of the cases have been referred to the court by African countries themselves.”
“So for me, the gap in the public mind has been occasioned by the aggressive propaganda against the court rather than the fact that the facts bare out those issues,” added Prof. Mensah-Bonsu who is Ghana’s nominee for ICC judge.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
