International News

UNITED NATIONS, United States, Oct 24 (APP/AFP): UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday he hopes South Africa will reconsider its decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. Ban said in a statement that he regretted the decision which followed a dispute over South Africa’s refusal to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and hand him over for trial at the ICC for war crimes. Pretoria last week presented a formal letter to the United Nations announcing its decision to pull out of the Rome statute, the founding treaty of the ICC. The withdrawal will take effect one year after the letter was received, making South Africa the first country to pull out from the court. Ban “hopes South Africa will reconsider its decision before its withdrawal takes effect,” his spokesman said. The UN recalled that South Africa was among the first signatories of the treaty and stressed that the ICC is “central to global efforts to end impunity and prevent conflict.” Established in 2002, the ICC if often accused of bias against Africa and has struggled with a lack of cooperation, including from the United States which has signed the court’s treaty but never ratified it.