Sudanese president Omar al Bashir’s shadow continued to loom large over international criminal justice as South Africa restated its intention to withdraw from the International Criminal Court last week.

The continued reception of Mr Bashir in African capitals in the face of an outstanding 18-year warrant of arrest has become a sticking point between the ICC and states that have ratified the treaty establishing the court.

South Africa’s failure to arrest President al Bashir when he attended an African Union meeting in Johannesburg in 2015 prompted the ICC’s pre-trial chamber to rule that it had breached its obligations under the Rome Statute.

Justice and Correctional Services Minister Tshililo Michael Masutha, announced at the annual Assembly of States Parties in New York that South Africa would make good its threat to pull out of the Rome Statute by passing a law that allowed its own courts to try international crimes.

“The pre-trial chamber ruling raised new issues and further clouded, rather than provided clarity on, South Africa’s concerns regarding its obligations,” which contradicted its peace mediation in conflicts on the continent, said Mr Masutha.

READ: ICC: South Africa failed its duties by not arresting Sudan's Bashir

South Africa first served notice of its intention to withdraw from the ICC in 2016 but its courts struck down the decision, forcing it to revoke its notice of withdrawal in March this year.

Emboldened, perhaps by South Africa’s decision, Uganda, whose national, Solomy Balungi Bossa had been elected one of the six new ICC judges, also told the ASP that it would be guided by regional dynamics and peace processes when faced with competing obligations in international law.

Uganda was the first country to refer a case to the ICC, with which the trial of Lord’s Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen is underway, but has found itself in difficulty over the arrest of President Bashir.

“There is no convergence of views between the ICC and the AU on Sudan and Kenya,” Uganda’s representative to the UN said, adding that his country was being guided by stark realities of its neighbourhood.

Although Uganda once prevented President Bashir from travelling into the country warning him of arrest, it has since reversed that position.

READ: Sudan's Bashir in Kampala for state visit

The AU has campaigned for cases facing heads of state and government — such as Sudan’s and Kenya’s — to be put deferred for a year at each time as provided for in the Rome Statute.

The UN Security Council’s failure to consider these requests, let alone vote on them, incensed African states into considering mass withdrawal from the ICC.