Credit: ICC.int / International Criminal Court president Chile Eboe-Osuji

By Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC TIMES

International Criminal Court president Chile Eboe-Osuji issued an impassioned plea to the  United States last Friday, calling on it to join The Hague-based war tribunal. The ICC President urged America to “join her closest Allies and Friends at the table of the Rome Statue.”  Eboe-Osuji made the remarks in a speech delivered in Washington D.C. at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law.  The US has refused to join the ICC ever since the Rome Statue established the global criminal court in 2002.  The ICC is best known as  the ‘court of the last resort’. 

“The past, the present and the future victims of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes need her (America) to do so.  And it is with all due sense of responsibility that I directly request the leadership of the United States to give this support to the ICC.”

Eboe-Osuji,   ICC President.

“We continue to urge those who have not joined (#RomeStatute) to do so, so that humanity all over the world will come under the umbrella, the protection of the #ICC” – President Chile Eboe-Osuji on @dw_conflictzone https://t.co/kfKrZOZRnW#justicematters #morejustworld #dwzone pic.twitter.com/YV0QCsIKMq

— Int'l Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) April 4, 2019

Eboe-Osuji’s appeal to the U.S. will most likely fall on deaf ears as the current Trump administration is bent on destroying the ICC. Just last month,  the U.S. announced it is denying visas to ICC members investigating alleged war crimes committed by American troops in Afghanistan. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that the ICC is “attacking America’s rule of law”  by targeting American troops in a war crimes investigation. Last September 2018, the Trump Administration unleashed one of the most scathing public attacks on an global judicial institution in recent memory.  In an unprecedented, vitriolic attack on the ICC, US National Security Adviser John Bolton threatened sanctions on The Hague-based war tribunal if the court dares investigate alleged American war crimes in Afghanistan. Bolton made the  remarks in a speech at the ultra-conservative Federalist Society in Washington D.C.

Bolton damned the ICC as “ineffective, unaccountable,” “outright dangerous” and “contrary to American principles,” and said the US “would respond against the ICC and its personnel to the extent permitted by US law.” Bolton vowed that the US would not sit by idly if the ICC follows through on an investigation into alleged American war crimes:

“We will not cooperate with the ICC. We will provide no assistance to the ICC. We will certainly not join the ICC. We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us,”

National Security adviser Bolton.

ICC Prosecutor’s Suggestion Criminal Court  Investigate U.S. For War Crimes Unleashed Fury of Trump Admin.

Credit: ICC /   Fatou Bensouda, Chief Prosecutor of The International Criminal Court based in The Hague, Netherlands

In November 2017, the prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda,  requested judges to authorize an unprecedented investigation in Afghanistan into allegations including rape and torture by the U.S. military and CIA, crimes against humanity by the Taliban and war crimes by Afghan security forces.  Bensouda’s request sent the US into  a frenzy, with the Trump administration pretty much promising to destroy the ICC. 

ICC seeks unprecedented investigation of alleged U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan 

Source: Wikipedia Commons / US troops in Afghanistan

Bensouda’s request is remarkable because it is the first time the ICC has gone after Americans for alleged war crimes.

“Since 1998, the United States has declined to join the ICC because of its broad, unaccountable prosecutorial powers and the threat it poses to American national sovereignty. We are determined to protect the American and allied military and civilian personnel from living in fear of unjust prosecution for actions taken to defend our great nation. We feared that the court could eventually pursue politically motivated prosecutions of Americans, and our fears were warranted.”

Sec. of State Mike Pompeo