On Sept. 22, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger announced their immediate withdrawal from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The governments of the three counties that make up the Confederation of Sahel States declared that they had taken the decision, after concluding that the ICC has become “an instrument of neocolonial repression in the hands of imperialism” and a symbol of selective justice, an assessment that EIR has made for years.
According to a spokesman for the Confederation, the ICC has failed to prosecute serious crimes, while showing complacency towards some perpetrators. The spokesman charged that, while the ICC focuses on some actors, it ignores others, thus practicing a double standard as a tool of domination by imperialist powers, according to think tank Sahel Intelligence.
The spokesman said the Confederation will create its own court while promoting other mechanisms for peace and justice, adding that the countries remain open to international cooperation in other appropriate frameworks to promote human rights.
