Zambia to African Union: We are not pulling out of ICC
Saturday July 01 2017
African Heads of State at the start of the 28th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on January 30, 2017. PHOTO | ZACHARIAS ABUBEKER | AFP
Zambia will not pull out of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Justice minister said on Friday.
Mr Given Lubinda said the will of the majority of Zambians was that the country remains a member of the court.
“This is the position we are going to present to the African Union,” he said.
Over 91 per cent of those polled across the 30 districts indicated that the country should not leave the ICC, the minister told Parliament.
The public consultations were conducted between March 27 and April 10, this year.
He said submissions received from citizens as well as civil society groups noted that “Zambia needs to make its own decision as a sovereign state and not be forced by other countries”.
At an African Union (AU) Summit in February, member states were asked to pull out of the court
over what was termed as harassment of Africans by the ICC.
African leaders have often accused the international court of targeting them unfairly, hence pushing for a mass withdrawal.
READ: Unfair to Africa? Not ICC!
The continent has 34 signatories to the Rome Statute, the treaty which set up the court.
The debate on the ICC has been hugely divisive with some African countries, led by Nigeria and Senegal, strongly supporting the court. Kenya has been its fiercest critic.