Deputy president William Ruto has called for greater representation of Africa in the international justice system.
He said the International Criminal Court (ICC) should undergo drastic changes for it to be respected as an instrument of global justice.
He spoke at the 56th Annual Session of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organisation (AALCO), Nairobi yesterday.
Ruto said international judicial institutions have become tools for global power politics and called on AALCO to ensure balanced representation of Africans.
His remarks come amid sustained repudiation of ICC by African leaders over its handling of cases affecting some of them.
African leaders have amped up pressure on the institution with a plan for mass exit, that has seen South Africa recently initiate a withdrawal bid albeit unsuccessfully.
East African countries, particularly Kenya and Uganda, have been campaigning strongly for mass withdrawal, but the court has support among some West African nations.
Critics argue the court has tended to focus almost exclusively on Africans and more specifically black Africans.
Worse atrocities in other countries have not featured prominently in the court’s agenda thus suggest institutional bias of the court.
“It is incumbent upon us to ensure the interest of developing nations are protect by a stable and just court…we must be champions of global institutions that are grounded in fairness,” said Ruto.
He said national sovereignty is important at the dispensation of justice.
AALCO secretary general Kennedy Gaston reiterated Ruto’s remarks saying the fight against impunity cannot be left to ICC alone
Meanwhile, Ruto offered the candidature of Attorney General Prof Githu Muigai for the post of judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
He said Muigai has extraordinary experience and distinguished career at the national and international level.
He lobbied African and Asian Countries to elect him.
(AALCO), originally known as the Asian Legal Consultative Committee (ALCC), was constituted on November 1956. It is considered to be a tangible outcome of the historic Bandung Conference, held in Indonesia, in April 1955.
Seven Asian States, namely Burma (now Myanmar), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), India, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, and the United Arab Republic (now Arab Republic of Egypt and Syrian Arab Republic) are the original Member States.
Later, in April 1958, in order to include participation of countries of the continent of Africa its name was changed to Asian-African Legal Consultative Committee (AALCC).
At the Fortieth Annual Session, held at the Headquarters of AALCC in New Delhi, in 2001, the name of the Committee was changed to Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO). It might seem to be a minor change in nomenclature.
However, it has great symbolic significance reflecting the growing status of the Organization and the place it has secured among the family of international organizations.
