U.S. Obstructs Global Justice (human rights enforcement stopped)

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-fanton29mar29.story

COMMENTARY
U.S. Obstructs Global Justice
By Jonathan F. Fanton
Jonathan F. Fanton is president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

March 29, 2005

When a United Nations commission of inquiry recommended this year that gross human rights abuses in Darfur be referred to the new International Criminal Court, Pierre-Richard Prosper, the U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes issues, made headlines by rejecting the idea. "We don't want to be party to legitimizing the ICC," he said.

But why not? Ninety-eight nations have signed the Rome Treaty, which created the court that the United States now opposes. President Clinton signed the treaty too, in the final days of his term, but the Bush administration quickly said it had no intention of seeking ratification.

The ICC, which is already up and running in The Hague, has jurisdiction over crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed after July 1, 2002, if and when the justice system of a signatory country is unwilling or unable to act. What's going on in Darfur seems exactly suited for the court, but the U.S. has said it would rather pursue those who have committed atrocities in Darfur by creating a separate court in Arusha, Tanzania — even though such ad hoc tribunals are slow to organize and costly to run. "We don't want to be in a situation where we see the question of African justice being exported, or outsourced, to The Hague," Prosper said, in an obvious attempt to play the Southern Hemisphere against the northern.

But African opinion is more complex than that. The reality is that the ICC has already won wide support among Africans and that people there are looking to it for help and hope.

Today, 27 of the 98 countries that have signed the Treaty of Rome are from Africa. Four African countries have invited the court to investigate atrocities committed within their borders: Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Ivory Coast. Each is looking to the court for assistance where its own legal system has failed or fallen short.

As the first permanent criminal court with potentially worldwide jurisdiction, the ICC is designed to deter future Pol Pots and Pinochets. The year 2005 will be crucial in the ICC's early history. Its first two investigations, one in Uganda and one in Congo, are moving forward. Despite U.S. opposition, there is strong support in the U.N. Security Council for referring the Darfur situation to the court as well. A vigorous discussion underway this week will determine that outcome. <snip>