What Does the Future Hold for the International Criminal Court?

"Some African governments dismiss the ICC to a neo-colonial tool of Western governments...This helps explain why the African Union supported a call from Kenya earlier this year urging African member states to withdraw from the Rome Statute.

Kenyan leaders have been the subject of ICC investigations, and the Kenyan parliament voted to withdraw from the ICC in 2013. But to date, Kenya has not formally carried out that action.

South Africa's shocking announcement this week that it intends to withdraw could lead Kenya to act. It also highlights that dissatisfaction with the ICC among African countries is not solely driven by a desire to avoid ICC prosecution, but also by the political complexities of being a State Party to the statute...

If influential African nations like Kenya and South Africa withdraw from the Rome Statute, it could open the flood gates. Such a move would be crippling for the ICC – 34 of the 124 ICC states parties are African..."