Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have initiated a year-long process of withdrawing from the International Criminal Court, a move human rights defenders say will leave victims of war crimes without access to justice.
In a statement published on Wednesday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed that Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger had initiated the one-year process of withdrawing from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC.
The West African countries, which are all led by military juntas following a series of coups between 2020 and 2023, first announced their withdrawal from the ICC last September, calling it "a tool of neocolonial repression".
The three nations, now linked in an alliance named the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), accused the court, based in The Hague, of lacking impartiality and politicising human rights issues.
Niger officially left the ICC on 18 June and Burkina Faso and Mali followed on 24 June, by notifying the United Nations – which facilitated the Rome Statute – of their respective decisions.
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres acknowledged their departure on 30 June.
The ICC has invited the three countries to remain and to engage in dialogue with the institution.
AES states still liable
The ICC is the world's permanent war crimes tribunal, which prosecutes individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression when national courts are unwilling or unable to act.
A statement from the ICC said the move risked weakening global efforts to end impunity and undermining the pursuit of justice. It urged the three countries to remain committed to the statute.
The statement also said the decision to withdraw does not release a state from obligations incurred while it was still a party to the treaty.
Julien Antouly, a lecturer in international law and specialist on the Sahel region, told RFI that the withdrawal "does not fundamentally change the situation from a legal standpoint", as the court can still prosecute the countries in the coming year.
It also still has the right to investigate complaints already received. The ICC has been working on a case open in Mali since 2012, for instance.
Victims 'denied justice'
According to Amnesty International, the move "consecrates impunity and threatens to deny victims of war crimes justice and reparations".
Marceau Sivieude, the NGO's regional director for West and Central Africa, said in a statement that this decision "threatens to deny thousands of victims the possibility of truth, justice and reparations."
Amnesty has documented crimes under international law committed against civilians during conflicts in each of the three countries, and says many of these could fall within the jurisdiction of the ICC.
All three are fighting Islamist insurgencies that have seized large areas of territory and stepped up attacks on military targets this year. Rights groups have accused militants as well as the armed forces of Burkina Faso and Mali of possible abuses.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) also published a statement saying the Sahel countries’ withdrawal from the ICC "betrays victims".
"The African Union and all ICC member countries should publicly and privately urge Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger to remain part of the global community’s fight against impunity and to reverse their decisions to withdraw from the ICC," said HRW's International Justice Counsel, Tamara Aburamadan.
The notifications of withdrawals can still be reversed, as seen in Gambia and, most recently, Hungary.
