International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan must quit as the ICC fails, the writer says. Picture: UN International Criminal Court Tribunal
THE world is going through a painful period of glaring failure of those charged with the responsibility to rule. Increasingly, the desperation in the voice of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says it all: Evil is triumphing over good.
The evil deeds of the powerful minority prevail over the aspiration of the majority for stability – for peaceful coexistence where mutual respect for each other’s rights forms the foundation of our international world order.
At the heart of the failure of our international governance system is the International Criminal Court (ICC), and its chief prosecutor Karim Khan.
In my book, the ICC is a microcosm of a devious international system that is hell bent on preserving the egotistical interests of the powerful few in the Global North at the expense of the majority world.
From the era of slavery, colonialism and apartheid, nothing much has changed by comparison to today’s geopolitical lived experiences throughout the developing world.
The powerful states in the West wilfully abuse the UN system of multilateralism to pursue their darkest agenda of oppression and suppression of their ideological adversaries.
Events this week in the Middle East painted the clearest picture of the rot in international relations. Israel’s impunity and bully behaviour that is fully insulated by the military and economic might of the US has pushed our world to the brink.
The tired excuse that Israel is killing and maiming its neighbours to counter existential threats to itself is a blatant fallacy. No one, and no country, can erase any other off the face of the earth.
Hitler failed to erase the Jewish people from the planet.
It’s an impossible mission. The irony that the descendants of Hitler’s victim’s in today’s Israel and Washington believe they can murder all their enemies is ill-advised and shortsighted. Granted, the brutality of Washington and Israel’s interwoven foreign policy is perhaps the singular most threat to international peace and security.
Israel under its incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows no inclination for peace. Like the Biblical Samson, Netanyahu – whose political future has only been saved momentarily by his expansion and extension of wars in the Middle East – wants to go down with the pillars of the temple.
Netanyahu, buoyed by unequivocal support from Washington, wants to annihilate all the enemies of Israel, real or perceived. The Jewish lobby in Washington controls the levers of power and runs the establishment in every way possible.
The dual citizenship of the Jewish people everywhere in the world is also a framework that makes Israel powerful beyond its borders. After the US, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) is arguably the most powerful in the universe. It uses exactly the same lethal force, and machinery, that the US military unleashes when it invades enemy territories.
This week marks exactly a full year since Washington-sponsored Israeli genocide in Gaza, having been sparked by the abhorrent October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
The collective punishment that continues to be meted on the Palestinians is as indescribable as despicable.
Thus far, Israel has killed nearly 43 000 in Gaza alone, and displaced the entire 2.5 million population. Of the deathtoll, nearly half are innocent children. Women, too, account for a significant portion of the deathtoll.
The entire neighbourhoods of Gaza lie in ruins, and whatever remains standing is still bombarded with American-made weapons as we speak.
Tens of thousands of Gazans remain trapped under heaps of rubble. Israel has restricted the inflow of international aid into Gaza, and hunger and starvation has become a permanent feature of a hopeless and helpless life.
Disease has inevitably begun to creep in, too.
Throughout all the trials and tribulations of the Palestinians in Gaza and the rest of the occupied territories, including West Bank, the international community appears nonchalant to the plight of the downtrodden. Palestinians are going through sheer terror – a systematic extinction before our very eyes.
And the biggest poison of our times, in my view, is the intolerance to critique Israel’s behaviour towards others. Or, to label any criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic.
And here is why I want to zoom my focus into the role of the ICC and its glaring failures toward the upkeep of a law-abiding global system.
For the sake of context, the following is a verbatim description of the ICC’s role from its own website. In reads: “The ICC investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.”
But it is the next blatant lie that also catches the eye, which states: “The Court is participating in a global fight to end impunity, and through international criminal justice, the Court aims to hold those responsible accountable for their crimes and to help prevent these crimes from happening again.”
Well, South Africa, supported by several other nations around the world, has lit the torch on Israel’s atrocities in Gaza by hauling the Jewish state before the highest court in the world, the International Court of Justice.
A resounding majority of the UN member-states have also registered their full support for the establishment and recognition of the Palestinian state existing side-by-side with Israel. This fact alone makes a mockery of the mischievous claim by President Joe Biden and Netanyahu that Israel faces an existential threat.
In this welcome era of technological development, where gadgets on the palm of a hand can reveal events and happenings anywhere in the world as and when they happen, the genocide in Gaza has been watched in its rawest form, unsanitised by the subjective and embedded international media.
The double standards of the ICC are what ought to concern the rest of the international community, particularly the Global South, or developing world.
Usually outspoken against lesser targets in Africa and elsewhere, the ICC’s prosecutor Karim Khan, has been noticeably dead quiet about Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Juxtapose Khan’s silence on Israel with his outlandish issuance of the warrant of arrest for Russian President Vladimir Putin just months after the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict. The double-standards are staggering, to say the least.
If truth be told, Ukraine and Gaza are glaringly two very different sets of circumstances. Yet Khan and his ICC remain unable to exercise their mandate – that of “preventing genocide” from taking place.
In addition, the threats by Washington to impose sanctions on Khan and the ICC should they issue arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his War Cabinet colleagues expose the blatant inequality in our current global governance system.
As George Orwell noted in his seminal work, Animal Farm: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
Until, and unless institutions of great importance such as the ICC are led by individuals of unblemished character, the Western-led unilateralism will continue to thrive, thereby threatening the UN Charter that has sought to prevent the repeat of Hitler’s ghastly reign of terror that we see repeat itself in Gaza today.
Lastly, I want to argue that the developing world should no longer watch helplessly as Khan and the ICC perpetuate their subjugation at the hands of the rich and powerful states.
They should withdraw en masse their recognition of the ICC until guarantees that the institution will cease to exist as a powerful tool for the rich and powerful nations of the West against their weaker former colonies.
As for Khan, unless he mends his ways and behaves concomitant to the requirements of the office he occupies, he should be forced out of office.
After all, the ICC should be seen to be bigger than any individual, and ought to carry its affairs in a manner that is globally acceptable by all states.
Thus far, the ICC has failed dismally in the execution of its duties under Khan’s leadership. If the international system should eventually fall apart, Khan and the ICC will have to shoulder the bulk of the blame. History, too, will deservedly judge them harshly, I’m sure.
* Abbey Makoe is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief: Global South Media Network. The views expressed here are his own.