The Minister of Foreign Affairs Adonia Ayebare has threated that the country will leave the International Criminal Court (ICC), over it’s alleged undermining of the sovereignty of it’s member states and targeting of African officials.
“The ICC has lost its way, from blatantly undermining Sovereignty of its member states by exclusively targeting African officials abandoning its original global mandate, some member states targeting senior court officials from the global South like former prosecutor Karim Khan for exercising their prosecutorial independence” he said.
Ayebare who was replying to the U.S Secretary of State Marco Rubio, announcing sanctions against the court, warned that Uganda will not hesitate to leave the court if it dares to ever investigate or indict any Ugandan.
“Uganda will not hesitate to leave this increasingly rogue institution should it ever investigate or indict our people. As a member of the ICC Bureau we will continue to advocate for common-sense reforms” he said.
On Friday, Rubio announced that the U.S was sanctioning the court and further called on U.S allies within the court to work for solutions to end it’s alleged threat to U.S sovereignty forever.
“For decades now, both Republicans and Democrats have rejected the idea that the International Criminal Court has any power to prosecute American citizens, to prosecute military service members or political leaders, because America never joined the court. We don’t need that court, and we don’t want it. But now, globalist experts that are an ocean away, they don’t care what you think” Rubio told Americans.
Rubio further alleged that the court was simply targeting it’s citizens, leaders, border patrol agents and service members defending the country at the expense of it’s sovereignty.
“And President Trump will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans. And that’s why today, the United States is sanctioning the International Criminal Court. We will ban transactions with this rogue court cutting off their resources and crippling their ability to operate against us, because our message is clear” he said.
He added, “The United States and the American people are not subject to the jurisdiction of this fake ICC. Both parties agree on this, but only President Trump has the resolve to take the action needed to end this threat once and for all. Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC”.
Rubio further warned U.S allies who are part of the ICC that rely on American service members for their defence, to rein in on the ICC.
“If they do not, the United States will continue its campaign to dismantle the ICC piece by piece until Americans are threatened no longer” he said.
Currently only one Ugandan, former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) brigade commander Dominic Ongwen has been convicted and is currently serving a sentence handed down by the International Criminal Court (ICC), after he was found guilty of 61 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in northern Uganda between July 1, 2002, and December 31, 2005.
He is currently serving a 25 year sentence in a Norwegian penitentiary under an enforcement agreement with the ICC.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) which was established in 2002 under the multilateral Rome Statute is an intergovernmental organisation and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands.
The ICC is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
