If we must leave the ICC (don’t do it!), let’s do so on the basis of informed judgement

Oh, you know the type. Always bloviating about Africans and how we are like this and how we are like that, ranging from whether or not vegetarianism is “normal” to always-unwelcome opinions on spiritual matters.

There is no greater certainty than that which comes from a place of ignorance.

In other words, those who are the most provincial are the ones who are most certain of their grasp of this our vast continent.

They are the ones most vulnerable to exploitation by pan-Africanist agendas that are, in the end, antithetical to the thriving of the diverse peoples of this continent.

Yes, not all pan-African initiatives are good. I am talking about the call by the African Union this February for member states to pull out of the International Criminal Court.

Luckily for us, a few cool heads prevailed and this resolution is not only non-binding but it also allows countries to decide how they apply it should they choose to do so.

With the African Court of Justice and a few other human-rights organs based in Arusha, it has been easy enough to catch an occasional taste of the sentiments that a supra-national approach to complicated matters of internal conflict can raise.

I am writing this article about sticky ICC matters while sitting in Mpika town in Muchinga district, Zambia – fairly close to Tanzania’s southern highlands – because my visit happened to coincide with the visit of the Zambian Commission to gather citizens’ views on whether Zambia should leave the ICC.

We are sharing a hotel and polite greetings, but nothing else. My local hosts have cynically remarked about how their government can afford to prioritise the work of such a Commission by resourcing them when there are so many other immediate concerns facing the country that never get addressed.

Heh. Don’t we all wonder about our government’s priorities?

Whatever the Zambian people decide, I hope that they do so as a majority that is exercising its free and informed will.

There may be many reasons for African countries to pull out of the ICC, the only question is how valid these reasons are. I will tell you right away the one that is most disagreeable to me: That incendiary accusation that the ICC is picking on Africa, eti “Why don’t they also go and try other continents! It’s racist!”

Which brings me to the bloviator problem – they make up the majority of shouting-heads whom we see advancing the anti-ICC agenda. I suck my teeth at that. Let us leave that reductionism and faux-victimhood to real racists. Let us tell the truth and shame the devil.

These governments of ours sign international treaties on our behalf all the time, “consultative process” notwithstanding. This organ that we are trying to demonise, the ICC? Yeah, well it pretty much works on behalf of citizens who have been denied a fair hearing from their own legal systems and who have had to appeal to “outsiders” for help.

It is not easy to get an African government or war criminal dragged to the ICC but it is done by the country’s very own citizens. Why? Because our states are party to the Rome Statute on the ICC thanks to documents that they signed on our behalf.

A detail that anti-ICC lobbies so carefully and handily conceal from us.

Whatever we may think about the appropriateness of an International Criminal Court is up to us as individuals and negotiated as a collective.

My intention is to request that we make informed decisions based on logic rather than pat pronouncements about what “the majority of Tanzanians believe.”

In fact, let us leave the word ‘belief’ to the confines of our places of worship in this our secular United Republic and use our excellent minds for the participatory good governance of our societies.

In that spirit may I offer you a link to a brief document about the ICC: https://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/pids/publications/uicceng.pdf. This is the age of information: It is free. Download it, print it, translate it, whatever.

Unfair warning: If you have read this article up to this point, you have just lost your right to claim that you could not make an informed opinion on this subject. You’re welcome.

I have been humbled and pleased that Tanzania’s government has for so many years supported pacifism and the pursuit of justice not only on paper, but in action.

This is a source of true and quiet pride, the kind that comes from constructive and life-affirming service and part of why my fantasy of being a public servant one day hasn’t died out.
Even when the actions of my government contradict this sentiment – and they have, irrespective of which administration we are talking about – still, all is not lost.

Consider this part of my appeal to my government should it ever even give half a second’s thought to heeding the AU’s unfortunate call: Don’t. It would be quite literally the most un-Tanzanian response possible.

Elsie Eyakuze is an independent consultant and blogger for The Mikocheni Report, http://mikochenireport.blogspot.com. E-mail: [email protected]