The remarks come as divisions deepen across Africa on whether to reform or abandon the ICC amid mounting concerns over justice and sovereignty.

A legal expert has called for African countries to seek reforms to the International Criminal Court (ICC) instead of withdrawing from it. This comes after several Sahel Alliance countries announced their departure from the court, raising concerns about justice and sovereignty across the continent. The expert acknowledged criticisms that the ICC has disproportionately focused on Africa and sometimes failed to prosecute powerful perpetrators, but argued that reforming the court's practices is a better solution than leaving it.

The expert recommended that the ICC improve its transparency, communication with victim communities, and ensure thorough investigations and prosecutions. They also emphasized the importance of strengthening national judicial systems, while maintaining the ICC as a crucial mechanism when domestic courts are unable to deliver justice. The remarks reflect ongoing debates in Africa about the future of the ICC and its role in global justice.

Expert urges Africa to fix, not abandon, the ICC

As debate intensifies over Africa's relationship with the International Criminal Court, ICC, following the recent withdrawal of the Sahel Alliance countries, legal experts are calling for reform rather than rejection of the court. It is fair to criticize the ICC in its first years that it concentrated on Africa and led to the perception or the reality that it was going for the weak states and avoiding powerful perpetrators. But the way to address this, in my view, is not to walk away, but to reform the practice of the ICC. Donald urged the court to rebuke trust and confidence by acting on global atrocities without political bias, communicating transparently and ensuring investigations are complete. Across the world. And then second, I think, is to improve its communications, to improve its communications and outreach, especially to victim countries, to explain to them in greater detail, and especially to victim communities, to explain to them in greater detail what it is doing, what are the level of investigations, when prosecutions are likely to be due, and to actually conduct prosecutions with the utmost professionalism and also competence. The ICC does face a big credibility problem in several parts of the world, especially in the countries where it actually launched investigations and prosecutions, and some of them ended up being terminated, sometimes because of incomplete work done. And in other places where people are skeptical that it seems to be a tool of the powerful states to hold in line leaders from less powerful states for whom it wants certain things. So those perceptions do exist. But I think there are other elements that people should look at. People should look at the accountability gap that would happen if the ICC was not there. He concluded that Africa should strengthen its own judicial systems, but emphasized the ICC's vital role when national courts fail. It is the obligation of many actors, including the ICC, to try and strengthen national systems and to challenge them to be able to provide justice and protection to the people. But where they fail to do so, then the ICC should be able to kick in robustly. The remarks come as divisions deepen across Africa on whether to reform or abandon the ICC amid mounting concerns over justice and sovereignty.

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