Africans leaders have thrown their weight behind a Kenyan proposal for the continent to pull out of the International Crime Court (ICC) over claims that the court targets the continent unfairly.
President of Chad, Idriss Derby, who was also elected the President of the African Union at the two day summit, reproached the court for focusing more on Africans.
“Elsewhere in the world, many things happen — many flagrant violations of human rights — but nobody cares,” stated the Chadian President.
Although the decision to withdraw from the ICC is not legally binding on any member country in Africa, the decision to leave, however, is dependent on each individual nation.
The Kenyan government sponsored the bill, in protest over the fact that majority of the cases prosecuted by the Court involved an African country.
The ICC, which is located in The Hague, Netherlands, has its foundation on the Roman Statute and was founded in 2002 to prosecute war criminals across the world.
Last week, former President of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, went on trial over allegation of war crimes during the crisis experienced by the West African country after its presidential election.
The trial of Mr. Gbagbo has, however, sparked off a bitter row across the African continent.
It would also be recalled that the ICC has over the years opened inquiry into eight nations, all of them African.
The countries are: Uganda, Sudan, Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast and Libya.
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