Cameroon Gov’t Has So Far Not Ratified The Rome Statute of the ICC Cameroon thus is not a member and cannot report any matter to the ICC

The International Criminal Court

Cameroon Gov’t Has So Far Not Ratified The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, ICC. Cameroon thus is not a member  of ICC, and cannot report any matter to the court.. ICC cannot also take a decision to intervene in Cameroon. However, a UN Security Council resolution can authorise ICC to intervene in Cameroon.

In late 2016, the long unresolved Anglophone Problem in Cameroon degenerated into the Anglophone Crisis, which unfortunately still, later escalated into an armed conflict between Government troops and separatist fighters. It is no secret that both sides in the conflict have committed what many consider as crimes against humanity and war crimes. Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch have documented most of the atrocities committed.

In the last few years in the country, there have been lots of talks and threats by different parties or camps in the ongoing Anglophone Crisis, as to who and who at home and abroad, will be dragged to the International Criminal Court, ICC, at the Hague, for alleged crimes against humanity or war crimes committed in the ongoing conflict.

However, the focus of The Mentor in this article is not about who is accusing who, or whether the different accusations are grounded or not. The focus of the article is to explain that Cameroon is not a State Party to the Rome Statute of the ICC. In other words, the Cameroon Government of President Paul Biya has so far failed to ratify the Rome Statute of the ICC. So Cameroon is not a member State of the International Criminal Court..

Cameroon Gov’t Cannot Report Any Matter To ICC

As a result of the failure by Cameroon to ratify the Rome Statute of the ICC, even the Cameroon Government cannot report any matter to the ICC. So if, for example, the Cameroon Government today identifies some foreign money bags or groups as sponsors of the terrorist group, Boko Haram, that is slaughtering Cameroonians, looting, and destroying properties in the Far North Region of the country; the Government cannot report the matter to the ICC. Though the atrocities constitute crimes against humanity, Cameroon cannot take the matter to ICC since the country is not a member of the international court.

Cameroon not having ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC, also means that the ICC cannot take a decision or an initiative to intervene in Cameroon. So the ICC cannot on its own open any investigation into any alleged crime against humanity or an alleged war crime committed in Cameroon. ICC cannot also ask Cameroon to arrest and hand over anybody living or hiding in Cameroon, or a foreign personality on a visit to Cameroon, that the court has issued a warrant for his or her arrest.

However, ICC Can Still Intervene In Cameroon

Meanwhile, it is important to note that while ICC cannot on its own take the decision to intervene in a country like Cameroon that has not ratified the Rome Statute of the court, there is however a possibility by which the court can open an investigation in a country like Cameroon that has not ratified its Statute. This can happen with the adoption of a resolution by the United Nations Security Country, UNSC. The Security Council of the United Nations, has the power to adopt a resolution to authorize the ICC to intervene in a State that has not ratified the Rome Statute of the court.

An example of such a case happened in 2011 to Libya, a State that was not a party to the Rome Statute of the ICC, and thus not a member country of the ICC. The UN Security Council, UNSC, on February 26, 2011, adopted Resolution 1970 (2011) that referred the situation in Libya at that time to the ICC. On March 3, 2011, the ICC Prosecutor then announced that the court was opening a formal investigation into the situation in Libya.

It should, however, be noted that this was only the second time ever in the history of the UNSC to adopt such a resolution. Thus such situations are rare. It is not easy to get such a resolution adopted by the UN Security Council, where some members have veto power as well as opposing interests. For example, despite the atrocities that the Israeli military often commit in neighboring Palestine, it is very difficult for the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution just to only condemn Israel for the atrocious acts because of the US veto.

A Cameroonian Cannot Judge At ICC

Meanwhile, there are quite a number of things that Cameroon and its citizens are losing because of the country’s non-ratification of the Rome Statute of the ICC. For example, a Cameroonian cannot be employed by the ICC, especially to a top position like a judge, because the country is not a party to the Rome Statute of the court, and thus is not a member country of the international court.

Ironically, Cameroon Signed Treaty To Create ICC

Though a much talked about international institution, the International Criminal Court is not really an old institution. The ICC was created in 1998 in the Italian capital, Rome, which means that it clocks 25 this year. It should be noted that a total of 60 countries that are members of the UN, were required to sign the treaty for the creation of ICC. Interestingly enough, Cameroon was among the 60 countries that signed what became known as the Rome Treaty to create the ICC. It was called the Rome Treaty simply because the international meetings to create the ICC were held in Rome, the capital of Italy. This is important to point out because there are many Cameroonians that when they hear the name, Rome, they link it to the Catholic Church or the Vatican, whereas it is also the capital of Italy.

Meanwhile, after the creation of the ICC in 1998 with the signing of the Rome Treaty, then followed the call for the ratification of the Statute of the ICC that was also known as the Rome Statute of the ICC. Like all international treaties, it needed that countries should independently ratify the Rome Statute to become member States of the ICC, or better still to become State Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC.

The ratification of the Rome Statute of the ICC by States, started the following year after the creation of the International Criminal Court, that is 1999. It was of course not surprising that Italy was among the countries that ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC in that 1999. Interestingly enough, an African country, Senegal, was among the countries that ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC in 1999.

The following year, 2000, six African countries came on board the train by ratifying the Rome Statute of the ICC. They included Botswana, Lesotho, Mali, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and one of Cameroon’s neighbors, Gabon. A total of 30 African countries ratified the Rome Statute within the first 10 years, that is, from 1999 – 2009. Today almost all African countries South of the Sahara have ratified the Rome Statute.

Cameroon And Equatorial Guinea

As regards the Central African Sub-Region, it is so ignominious that Cameroon is one of the only two countries in the sub-region that has till date been running away from ratifying the Rome Statute of the ICC. On the other hand, it is not a surprise that the other country is Equatorial Guinea whose President that has been in power since 1979 is Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, whose 54-year-old son, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mangue, is scandalously enough Vice President of the small oil-rich country.

Worthy of note that the Central African Republic (CAR) ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC on October 3, 2001, Congo Brazzaville ratified it on May 3, 2004, and Chad did it on November 1, 2006.