Deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine, has advised the Chief Prosecutor, of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda to end the court's selective prosecution of Black African leaders.

He said the act of targeting Africans in the attempt to seek justice goes against the standard permitted under any constitutional Justice system which calls for fairness in the prosecution of offenders.

According to him, there are equally good cases of injustice and mass murder perpetrated in other parts of the world but the court has failed to pursue them.

“The perception of biases against Africa in the selection of cases to investigate and prosecute has arisen substantially as a result of the non-pursuit of cases elsewhere in the world which by any standards of criminal justice ought to have been investigated and prosecuted”, he said.

Speaking at the first international forum on the ICC at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) in Accra, Dr. Ayine said even though the guilt of crimes committed by Africans cannot be measured against the ones committed in other parts of the, the perception  of unfairness by Africans have worsen the feeling of disaffection against the Court.

The International Criminal Court was established on July 17, 1988 when 120 states adopted the Rome Statue, the legal basis for establishing the permanent International Criminal Court.

Over the years, the Court has received over 9000 complaints about alleged crimes from 139 countries; however, it has indicted 36 Africans in eight countries.

On October 1, 2013 the African Union (AU) threatened to withdraw after the Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy, William Ruto were indicted by the Court for the riots that flared up after disputed elections at the end of 2007 which left hundreds dead. The Kenyan parliament voted in favor of withdrawing from the ICC.

Dr Ayine said it is in the interest of the Prosecutor to address the perception about the Court and to ensure that fairness is seen in the discharge of her prosecutorial duties.

Supreme Court Judge, Sophia Akuffo said the public should be educated about the jurisdiction of the Court to prevent the situation where citizens often threaten to refer domestic cases to it.

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