Human Rights Watch is calling on African leaders to reject the move by some Kenyan officials to defer International Criminal Court cases against six individuals suspected of orchestrating the post-election violence.

The global rights group urges nations taking part in the African Union summit later this month in Addis Ababa to “stand on the side of Kenyans who were the victims of the violence,” says Elizabeth Evenson, a senior counsel for HRW's international justice programme.

Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka has been leading an effort to gain African backing for deferral of the cases against the six.

“It is important for African countries to support the fight against impunity,” Ms Evenson declared Tuesday.

She added that the provision of the ICC statute cited by Kenya in its argument for deferral of the six cases was not applicable in these circumstances.

Article 16 of the statute allows the United Nations Security Council to defer ICC cases only when it sees “a threat to international peace and security”, Ms Evenson said.

Determination

She noted that the Security Council had never made such a determination.

HRW had initially supported Kenya's stated plan to organise in-country trials of those accused of stoking the mayhem that followed the disputed 2007 election, she noted.
But the government had failed for three years to act on its promises, Ms Evenson observed. And national trials could not be held for many more months due to the prior need to implement judicial reforms, she added.

“African leaders need to ask hard questions about whether the Kenyans are serious about committing to national trials,” she said.

“They should be asking what measures Kenya has actually taken to hold national trials.”

The Kenyan public has “widely welcomed” the ICC prosecutor's move to bring charges against the six suspects, Ms Evenson said.

“The reaction from Kenyan civil society has been overwhelmingly against the effort to defer the cases.”

Human Rights Watch is rallying international support for the ICC's role in Kenya. The Johannesburg office of the New York-based NGO is signing on to a joint statement in support of the ICC that was due to be issued on Tuesday.