This summer’s firestorm over the South African government’s defiance of a court order to arrest Omar Al Bashir, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), has thrust to the fore a conundrum that has bedeviled the movement for international justice since its inception: how to render impartial justice for grave crimes in a world of unequal power?
In recent months, I have been privileged to take part in passionate discussions on the ICC in Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, and Jerusalem. Many rights activists who supported the establishment of the ICC are troubled by the many who evade its grasp. Or, as more than one person put it bluntly: “Why has the ICC charged Bashir and other African leaders, but not senior figures from the global north, such as [former U.S. President George W.] Bush and [former British Prime Minister Tony] Blair,” for crimes which occurred in prosecuting the war in Iraq and the “global war on terror”?
While this question may sound outlandish in Washington or London, it is considered common sense in many other capitals.
