Challenging ICC and International Law

How effective or ineffective is the ICC?

The biggest obstacle to implementing International Law (IL) acted out through supranational authorities such as the International Criminal Court and other temporary criminal tribunals is that they have no way to enforce their decisions. This has become a great barrier to the Darfur case, especially because the latest jury decided to issue an arrest warrant for Omar Al-Bashir, the leader of Sudan.

This is the first time the court has ever issued the arrest of a standing head-of-state, and the world is unsure what will happen next. It has been made clear that the government of Sudan will not be handing their leader over to the court, so what is the next step?

The ICC hoped that it would receive the cooperation of other African countries, especially those signatories to the Rome Statute. You can see those signatories and the exact demands of this statute on the ICC website. Al-Bashir, however, remains a free man.

The defiant Sudanese leader paid a visit to Hosni Mubarak, the head of Egypt. They discussed the implications of the ICC warrant. Mubarak had originally condemned the ruling on the grounds that it would "sabotage peace efforts in the turbulent region".

Cairo was not A-Bashir's first appearance outside his own country. He traveled to Eritrea two days before on March 2nd. In doing this, he is damaging the image of ICC and making it appear incompetent. This may affect the court's ability to enforce future decisions and pinpoints the weakness of IL.

Egypt and Eritrea are only two of many countries in the Arab League and AU who have protested the ICC's actions. Their stance combined with that of Washington to "steer clear" of the issue has not given the ICC much credibility. It may be a long time before the ICC can even fulfill this empty threat.

So my question is, was it a good idea to issue this warrant, or has it only slowed progress in the region? It does not help the court's image to make promises it cannot keep, so where has this decision brought them?

Yet again, on 26 March, Al-Bashir left Cairo for Ethiopia. Will he continue to travel freely about with no threats of arrest? These actions bring the effectiveness of the ICC and the entire system of IL under to question and put the system under global scrutiny.