A triumph of international law

One must credit the UN Secretary General for his very forthright view on the potential negative consequences of providing a special dispensation to a UN member. The resolution was withdrawn in the face of potential opposition from an overwhelming majority of the UN Security Council members.

However, we sit up and take note of the words of the US deputy representative at UN when he said that in future the US would take into account the risk of ICC review when determining contributions to UN authorised or established operations.

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It would be recalled that the US had obtained from UN immunity for its troops in 2002, by threatening to block UN peacekeeping operations, if its demand for exemption from ICC prosecution was not met.

That the exemption was not renewed this time around is indeed a triumph of international law. We would also like to think that this is also an acknowledgement of the fact that the US cannot ride roughshod over world opinion.

Interestingly, the US had played a leading role, when the Rome Statute was first mooted, in 1996. The whole treaty was 'unsigned' two years after the president of the United States had put his signature on it in 2000, fearing that the court might be used by its opponents, to pursue politically motivated cases.

The US apprehensions are predicated on its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But then, neither Afghanistan nor Iraq was a peace operation.

Hopefully, it has been made clear that when it came to the question of rights and justice even the US must subject itself to the dictates of international law.