Bashir, the ICC and Africa

Elizabeth Palchik Allen looks into why African leaders aren't confronting Sudan's president, Omar Al Bashir. Her article makes dispiriting reading, with its summary explanation: 'When it comes to Bashir, politics is utterly trumping justice'; and 'the geopolitics of the region have proven to be stronger than the intervention of the court [the ICC]'. As I've said before on this blog, it's this tendency of political interest to prevail over concern for the rule of law that is at the heart of the weakness of international law as things currently stand. It is why, as important as it is, international law is still very much a work in progress.