South Africa’s government is challenging the Western-led international order by suing Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for violating the 1948 UN Genocide Convention through its actions in Gaza.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has long been criticized by African countries for persecuting Africans in particular. And the existence of double standards in the United States and Europe is undeniable. Condemn the bombing of civilians and impending ethnic cleansing, whether in Ukraine, Syria or Gaza, or no.
Isn’t that also true of South Africa?
When Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir traveled to Johannesburg for the African Union summit in 2015, South Africa refused to arrest him and hand him over to the ICC. This was despite the fact that, as an ICC member state, it was obliged to do so because the court had indicted al-Bashir for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
South Africa condemns the invasion and annexation of Ukrainian territory after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 with clear genocidal intent to wipe the sovereign state and its culture from the map. Abstained from voting on the UN resolution. This is despite the fact that Russia’s actions violate the United Nations Charter, including the principle of sovereignty.
South Africa’s abstention also means the destruction of cities under Genghis Khan’s laws, the bombing of civilian targets that killed thousands and displaced millions, the shelling of escape routes, and arbitrary executions (Russia itself This was despite the staggering number of war crimes committed by Russia. (not even the death penalty), rape, torture, deportation, child robbery, etc. Due to Russian operations, many Ukrainian settlements have virtually disappeared.
Other interesting topics
South Africa is key to Russia and Ukraine’s diplomatic struggle
The African continent has long been a fertile ground for Russian influence. Ukraine’s ambassador to South Africa claims that Ukraine is now moving in.
These actions, along with Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports, which led to soaring global food prices that pushed African countries to the brink of starvation, did not change South Africa’s voting patterns.
As Russian President Vladmir Putin himself has stated, he aims to revive the Tsarist Empire established in the 15th century through the conquest of non-Russian peoples and colonial conquests. However, at a ceremony commemorating the “annexation” of four Ukrainian regions in September 2022, President Putin recalled the African slave trade and colonial plunder, and cast himself as the leader of the global anti-colonial struggle against the West. He justified it by claiming that it was.
Meanwhile, in Sudan, the Central African Republic, Mali, and elsewhere, Evgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group was implicated in gross human rights abuses and neocolonial exploitation that financed imperialist Russia’s war machine in Ukraine.
However, South Africa has decided to hold joint naval exercises with Russia and China, the latter of which is accused by several countries and organizations of genocide against the Uyghur people, in February 2023, one year after the Russian invasion. He didn’t even flinch. The Desmond Tutu Foundation, the late South African archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner, slammed the move, calling it “shameful” and “akin to joining a war against Ukraine.”
Has South Africa forgotten that the former Soviet Union of Ukraine also supported anti-colonial struggles in Africa and even trained African National Congress (ANC) fighters?
Oleksiy Haran, a political science professor at the Kyiv Mohyla State Academy, recalled how African diplomats used to associate Ukraine with anti-colonial and anti-apartheid resolutions. In fact, Ukraine, not the Soviet Union, was a member of the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid, with Ukrainian Hennadiy Udovenko serving as its vice-chairman from 1985 to 1992.
“We have obligations to the Genocide Convention,” South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola told the BBC. Does that obligation not apply to Russian and Chinese practices?
The conclusion can only be that the Israeli indictment shows that South Africa also adopts double standards.
The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily of the Kyiv Post.