ON NOVEMBER 16, VLADIMIR PUTIN signed an executive order withdrawing Russia from the 124 member International Criminal Court (ICC), the international war times court situated in the Hague, Netherlands. The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement explaining that the ICC “did not live up to the hopes associated with it and did not become truly independent.” At the same time three African nations, Gambi, Burundi and South Africa, have also announced their intent to withdraw from the ICC.
The African nations are withdrawing because they perceive the ICC as a tool of Western imperialism. All three countries consider the ICC to be an “outside institution imposing its will on African nations without their input, perpetuating a history of Western intervention and African oppression.”