"Many hope the court will broaden its geographical ambit, although any such move will face huge political obstacles. No member of the UN Security Council has ever been in the court’s sights; indeed only two permanent council members, Britain and France, belong to it. All five countries where villains are expected to go to The Hague (see table) are in Africa. This year the court has also become involved in Côte d’Ivoire and Libya. In three cases, the countries themselves called in the court; but this narrow focus has made many African governments suspicious of a body which has many member states—119 and rising—but big absentees, from America to India to most Middle Eastern countries.
The list of places where the court says it is carrying out preliminary investigations is broad enough: Afghanistan, Colombia, Georgia, Gaza, Honduras and the Korean peninsula, as well as Guinea and Nigeria. But the total number of staff involved in those initial probes is a bare handful. The court’s resources are overwhelmingly directed at a single continent. All 26 of the suspects publicly indicted by the court have been African; of those in the court’s custody, four are Congolese and one a Rwandan wanted for crimes in Congo." (thanks Ahmet)
The list of places where the court says it is carrying out preliminary investigations is broad enough: Afghanistan, Colombia, Georgia, Gaza, Honduras and the Korean peninsula, as well as Guinea and Nigeria. But the total number of staff involved in those initial probes is a bare handful. The court’s resources are overwhelmingly directed at a single continent. All 26 of the suspects publicly indicted by the court have been African; of those in the court’s custody, four are Congolese and one a Rwandan wanted for crimes in Congo." (thanks Ahmet)
