Last night I had the pleasure of participation in a presentation at the Council on Foreign Relations given by Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.  As conveyors’ of the Washington Working Group on the ICC we had helped him set up a few meetings on the Hill.  Our Program Coordinator, Abby Long helped out tremendously in this effort. 

My friend Mark Goldberg at the UN Dispatch wrote an excellent piece on Ocampo’s key points.

I want to emphasize two points that Mark mentioned and one that he didn’t:

First, the true relevance of the Court is its global impact. Ocampo said that:

“Even before any ruling in the Lubanga case, the issue of child recruitment gained new momentum, triggered debates in remote countries like Colombia or Sri Lanka and child soldiers were released in Nepal. The Special representative of the UN Secretary-General on children in armed conflicts immediately factored in such potential and used us as a tool to campaign around the world, and secure even more releases.” This is an example of how the Court can help to prevent crimes.  While the ICC will only deal with a few cases, its “shadow” extends far beyond them and the 110 nations that are Parties to the Rome Statute.

Second, political leaders sought by the ICC, such as Sudanese President Al-Bashir, are increasingly being shunned by other leaders and nations.  According to Ocampo:

“President Al Bashir became a fugitive; he cannot travel to States Parties of the Statute. He looks for political protection in the African Union and in his party, the NCP. South Africa informed President Bashir that he was invited to the inauguration ceremony of President Zuma, but that he would be arrested upon entry into the country. Uganda, Nigeria and Venezuela did the same. President Lula from Brazil and President Kirchner from Argentina refused to approach President Bashir in an Arab-South America summit. President Sarkozy has taken the unprecedented decision to cancel a French-African summit rather than run the risk of meeting with him in a corridor. Turkey has ensured that he cancels his appearance to a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Ankara. In the Guinea case, Morocco refused to keep on its territory President Dadis Camara. It did not want to harbor a possible ICC suspect. Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaore contacted the ICC to ascertain there was no arrest warrant before accepting to host Dadis Camara.”

Finally, during the question and answer session, Ocampo was asked a few questions regarding immunity for national leaders, particularly in terms of negotiating peace agreement.  His response was quite clear.  His job as a prosecutor is to uphold the law. National leaders can no longer act with impunity and hide behind their national sovereignty.  It’s about time.

If you like to find out more about the crimes committed by world’s worst criminals that are being tried by or wanted by the ICC, check out our new flash tool.

Don Kraus