The concept of an “international criminal court” is flawed at the core. Thus it is quite unfortunate that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is named and chartered as such. The presumptuous pomposity with which the ICC carries out its “mission” today has thus become a sad international punchline.
To presume to be a court outside of and, yet, higher than that of a sovereign nation is a ridiculous notion at best. Following the Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC earlier under the leadership of President Rodrigo Duterte, Malaysia, under Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had recently expressed its intention to withdraw from the ICC…
“This is not because we are against it but because of the political confusion about what it entails, caused by people with vested interest,” a visibly upset Mahathir told a news conference.
“I see this as a way to blacken my face because they know they cannot oust me easily,” said Mahathir, the world’s oldest leader at 93.
This demonstrates how untenable the very notion of the ICC is. No government — specially of any country that takes pride in its independence — would voluntarily subject itself to the rule of a foreign “court”.