Gambia to leave the International Criminal Court

ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, left, speaks with deputy prosecutor James Stewart.
(Image credit: AFP/Getty Images)

Following South Africa and Burundi, Gambia said Tuesday it will leave the International Criminal Court.

When announcing its exit, the Gambian government called the ICC the "international Caucasian court" and said it is just targeting countries in Africa. The primary mission of the ICC is "to help put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole, and thus to contribute to the prevention of such crimes." It is based in The Hague, and the chief prosecutor is Gambian Fatou Bensouda.

Of the six ICC cases that are underway or close to starting, only Africans have been charged, but there are preliminary ICC investigations opened in other areas of the world, The Associated Press reports. Under the late Nelson Mandela, South Africa supported the ICC, but the country recently told the U.N. secretary-general it is leaving the court. Burundi did the same last week, when the president signed legislation to exit from the ICC.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.