South Africa pulls out of International Criminal Court

South Africa announced on Friday that it would withdraw from the International Criminal Court, dealing a major blow to a troubled institution set up to try the world’s worst crimes.

The decision followed a dispute in 2015, when Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visited the country for an African Union summit despite facing an ICC arrest warrant over alleged war crimes. South Africa refused to arrest him, saying he had immunity as a head of state.

Justice minister Michael Masutha told reporters in Pretoria that the court was “inhibiting South Africa’s ability to honour its obligations relating to the granting of diplomatic immunity”.

“There is a view in Africa that the ICC in choosing who to prosecute has seemingly preferred to target leaders in Africa,” Mr Masutha said.

The ICC, set up in 2002, is often accused of bias against Africa and has also struggled with a lack of cooperation, including from the United States which has signed the court’s treaty, but never ratified it.

South Africa would be the first country to leave the court, though others could soon follow.

The withdrawal “shows startling disregard for justice from a country long seen as a global leader,” Human Rights Watch said.

Amnesty International said the country was “betraying millions of victims of the gravest human rights violations and undermining the international justice system”.

South Africa’s failure as an ICC signatory to arrest Mr Bashir led to a wave of condemnation, which was met with an early threat from the government to withdraw from The Hague-based court.

Mr Bashir has evaded arrest since his ICC indictment in 2009 for alleged war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur conflict, in which 300,000 people were killed and two million forced to flee their homes.