On a visit to Guinea-Bissau, the President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) revealed on Tuesday that he had proposed to this country, which has experienced a string of coups d’etat, to join this multilateral court, in order to strengthen “peace and security” in this small, unstable West African country.
“I came to Guinea-Bissau to ask the country to join the Rome Statute, which is the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court,” Piotr Hofmanski told reporters following his meeting with the president. Umaro Sissoco Embalo, in Bissau.
“By joining the ICC system, the country would demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law, peace and security,” added the judge, adding that President Embalo promised him to consider this request and to let him know his answer quickly.
With a population of around two million, Guinea-Bissau is a small country that has been subject to coups since its independence from Portugal in 1974. Along with Togo, it is the only two countries in ECOWAS (Economic Community of West Africa) not to be members of the ICC.
Bissau was thus the scene on February 1 of what President Embalo presented as a “new foiled attempt at a putsch”.
Established by the international treaty known as the Rome Statute adopted in 1998, the ICC, whose headquarters are in The Hague, was created in 2002. It is competent to try people accused of war crimes, crimes once morest humanity, genocide or crimes of aggression in the event of the failure of the legal systems where these people would normally be judged.
