South Africa to ‘withdraw from International Criminal Court’

Several outlets have published a copy of the Instrument of Withdrawal signed by South Africa’s foreign minister, which will effect the country’s withdrawal by next year.

It states that South Africa “has found that its obligations with respect to the peaceful resolution of conflicts at times are incompatible with the interpretation given by the International Criminal Court”.

However, neither South Africa nor the UN have officially confirmed the move and legal experts disagree on whether South Africa’s parliament would have to be consulted in order to withdraw from the ICC.

The decision is widely believed to be linked to a row that broke out after South African authorities failed to apprehend Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir during his visit to Johannesburg in 2015.

Mr Al-Bashir is wanted by the ICC, who issued two warrants of arrest against him in 2009 and 2010. He is facing seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity as well as three counts of genocide.

Last year, South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal rebuked the government for what Amnesty called a “failure to abide by its domestic and international obligations to arrest President Bashir and surrender him to the ” when he attended an African Union summit in 2015.