Originally published on the CGS blog on September 25, 2013.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir announced that he is planning to come to the US to attend the UN General Assembly. Bashir, accused of human rights abuses in the western Darfur region of Sudan, is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). If he goes through with these travel plans, the US government should arrest him and extradite him to The Hague to face charges for his crimes.
The ICC has indicted Bashir twice for crimes related to the conflict in Darfur that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. The indictments include five counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape and torture. Another two counts are for war crimes, or attacking civilians, and three counts are for genocide.
Bashir has applied for a US visa to come to the UN General Assembly and is scheduled to speak next Thursday afternoon. If the visa is granted and he chooses to attend, Bashir will undoubtedly be met with angry protesters and shunned by most other world leaders. His motives for wanting to attend are unclear. It’s been speculated that he is simply “thumbing his nose” at the US and the rest of the world. Some UN diplomats suspect that he may not actually make good on his threat, for fear of arrest and extradition. But this is not the first time Bashir has tested the limits of travel under ICC indictments; in July he attended an African Union summit in Nigeria, promptly returning home when protests broke out and lawsuits were filed.
UN Ambassador Samantha Power calls Bashir’s request for a visa “deplorable, cynical, and hugely inappropriate.” However, it is not legal for the host country of the General Assembly to deny entry to any foreign head of state who wishes to attend. One alternative is to seek assistance from Morocco, where Bashir plans to travel through en route to the US. His visit could be prevented if the Moroccan government banned him from flying through their airspace. However, that would be passing up an opportunity for the US to make a significant contribution to international law and justice.
The only acceptable option is to issue Bashir a visa and arrest him upon arrival. Although the US is not a member of the ICC, non-member states can play a cooperative role in court functions. Additionally, the US has ratified the Genocide Convention, which advises all parties to prevent and punish crimes such as Bashir’s. Through his participation in heinous crimes in Darfur, Bashir has forfeited his right to diplomatic immunity. In the words of Elise Keppler of Human Rights Watch, “Bashir belongs only in one place – the ICC …Darfur victims deserve to see him there, not in the halls of the United Nations.”
