Late last month, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso jointly announced their withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
United under the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), these three countries, which before had distanced themselves from the regional economic bloc ECOWAS, having accused it of serving as a tool of foreign powers, particularly France, took another step in their quest for sovereignty.
Their decision is anything but symbolic, as it directly targets one of the most powerful instruments of Neo-colonial judicial control of the African continent.
Since its creation in 2002, the ICC has presented itself as a universal judicial body tasked with prosecuting war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
Yet, behind this noble image lies a harsh reality: the majority of the Court’s high-profile cases involve African states. The West acts as judge but never as the accused.
One of several striking examples is the case of Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire who was detained in The Hague for over seven years before being acquitted in 2019.
Or the case of Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, who has been under ICC arrest warrant since 2009, while Western leaders responsible for illegal wars, such as George W. Bush or Tony Blair for their war in Iraq, have never been investigated?
Western crimes remain untouched by The Hague court: NATO’s bombing campaign in Libya in 2011, which caused thousands of civilian deaths, has never been seriously investigated.
The infamous tortures at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, exposed in 2004 with photographic evidence, were likewise never pursued as war crimes by the ICC.
In 2020, the ICC announced its intention to investigate war crimes committed in Afghanistan, including by US forces.
In response, the Trump administration imposed economic sanctions and visa bans on ICC judges and prosecutors, including Fatou Bensouda, the Court’s Chief Prosecutor.
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These measures were seen as an attempt to deter the investigation into US actions, and, ultimately, the ICC has scaled back the scope of its investigations, practically admitting the difficulty in holding Western powers accountable.
By withdrawing from the ICC, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso reaffirm a basic principle: no self-respecting state can accept that a tribunal in The Hague vulnerable to the pressures of great powers decides who must be tried on their territory.
Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger send formal withdrawal notifications to ECOWAS
This step is part of a wider pattern of rupture with Neo-colonial structures. After leaving ECOWAS in January 2024 in protest against its perceived alignment with Western interests, these states are now designing their own judicial institutions.
Plans for an AES Criminal Court and regional high-security prison are under discussion, so this collective departure is also an invitation to rethink African justice, independent of foreign agendas.
The proposed AES Criminal Court demonstrates that it is possible to prosecute grave crimes in Africa, by Africans, for Africans. The withdrawal of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso from the ICC is a founding act.
Critics might argue that these states are shielding themselves from accountability, but the truth is, they refuse to be judged by rules they did not design.
They choose instead to build their own mechanisms, aligned with their realities, sending a message that justice should be an instrument of sovereignty, not domination.
RT. com / ABC Flash Point News 2025.
The ICC is a tool for western nations. Surprisingly the Americans do not accept it, neither do the Russians China and India along with Israel and Iran. So apart from the Europeans supporting it what is the point of it’s existence.
Yes, the ICC is thoroughly compromised and biased, hence has zero impartiality or credibility.
The very fact that the USA has the ‘Hague Invasion Act’ – legislation that threatens hostile actions including military action against the ICC should it indict an American or one of its allies – makes it impossible for the ICC to dispense equal justice.
It should be disbanded in favor of a body freely established and overseen by a community of rational nations which seek justice, rather than political control.