Ordinarily, agreements between nations are clothed in jargon and complexity, often dealing with important but less interesting issues that hardly make it to the news.
But the “mutual agreement” announced this week by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya unleashed a collective sigh of relief as it put paid to speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin would attend next month’s Brics summit in South Africa.
“By mutual agreement, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will not attend the summit but the Russian Federation will be represented by foreign minister Sergey Lavrov,” said Magwenya, noting Putin would dial in from Moscow.
The country had been under pressure to arrest Putin were he to attend the summit between leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, for war crimes related to his “special military operation” in Ukraine. The prospect of an arrest plunged the country into a diplomatic storm that led to Ramaphosa’s behind-the-scenes negotiations with Putin not to come to South Africa.
The genesis of the pressure is to be found in some “mutual agreements” that saw the country join the International Criminal Court (ICC), membership of which came with obligations which included arresting suspected war criminals within our jurisdiction. We could have domesticated the Rome Statute to allow us a “waiver of immunities for persons charged by the ICC from third-party countries where there is no referral by the UN Security Council”. But we have not.
This is why not arresting Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir in 2015 was an unnecessarily messy affair. But now that the “mutual agreement” helped us dodge the bullet in relation to Putin, what should we do to ensure we don’t wake up to the same mess, different characters, later?
The interregnum serves as an opportunity to review our involvement with the ICC and make a call — not under duress — that would obviate the need to dodge the next bullet.
It is no accident of history that countries such as China, the US, Israel, Qatar, India, Indonesia, Libya and Iraq have refused to sign the ICC’s constitutive treaty. Russia signed the Rome Statute but never ratified it to become a member. These countries choose their own paths informed by their nations’ interests.
The ICC’s raison d’être — the investigation and prosecution of individuals who commit crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and so on — remains necessary. Our nation agrees with its ideals, as do those who stand opposed to joining the ICC. Yet disagreements are to be found in the fine print. Domesticating the Rome Statute, as Ronald Lamola suggested, is an option South Africa whipped out when under pressure to arrest Putin, but it is one that requires consideration.
Our commitments to statutes must reflect our putative beliefs that, ideally, must outlast convenient political friendships
Now that the weight and shadow of Putin’s travails has been lifted from our shoulders, we must reopen the debate and decide what serves our interests best. Should we remain within the ICC under current circumstances, we should commit never to prevaricate when faced with issues of complying with the statutes, even if it means we arrest Putin or whoever else in the future.
Providing a waiver to third parties is a factor uppermost in most people’s minds because of Putin and Bashir. We ought not to simply tweak policy in response to crises but enact it to suit our national interests as the US, China and others have done.
Where we domesticate the statutes and use the absence of a referral by the UNSC as a shield against compliance, it should be because we believe this affords us the necessary cushions — not simply because Russia, a member of the council with veto powers, is our Brics ally. The UNSC is, itself, a subject of global debates because of its flaws.
Our commitments to statutes must reflect our putative beliefs that, ideally, must outlast convenient political friendships, however beneficial in the short term.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.