MIM Notes #227       February 1, 2001

Fox to guard henhouse:Clinton signs International Criminal Court 
treaty

At the last minute in late December, u.$. president Bill Clinton 
signed the treaty to create an International Criminal Court (ICC). 
Having thoroughly undermined the treaty at its final drafting in 
1998 (after which the United Snakes opposed it anyway), signing it 
in 2000 was a truly empty gesture. Senate leaders have vowed never 
to ratify it, and Clinton himself doesn't even support its 
ratification. He signed it, he says, so that the United Snakes 
would retain its influence over the future of the treaty and its 
implementation.

Such is the great fallacy of international law: the most powerful 
imperialist countries control the enforcement. Unpunished 
violations of so-called international law abound: Israel's 
decades-old, u.$.-sanctioned occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, 
the u.$. embargo against Cuba, the u.$. practice of executing 
people for crimes they committed while legally children, and on 
and on. In the case of the ICC, the treaty currently "requires a 
state's consent before one of its nationals could be prosecuted. 
The court ... can only override a state by a vote of the U.N. 
Security Council,"(1) which the U.$. controls through permanent 
veto power.

In addition, the united snakes wants the treaty to "exempt US 
soldiers and governmental officials from prosecution" by the ICC. 
MIM understands why. The ICC's reason for being is to be the first 
standing authority "to hold the world's tyrants accountable for 
genocide and other heinous war crimes."(2) The United Snakes has 
troops all over the world to help maintain the conditions for 
multinational corporations to flourish -- which includes 
supporting repressive neocolonial governments friendly to 
imperialist capital and crushing potentially revolutionary 
movements fighting for national self-determination. Since its 
soldiers and hirelings are obvious candidates for prosecution as 
war criminals, the unites snakes wants them exempted.

Liberal groups that support the treaty, like Human Rights Watch 
and Amnesty International, declared victory in Clinton's action. 
"'In signing this treaty, President Clinton has made history,'" 
said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice program 
at Human Rights Watch. 'This is a great step forward for global 
justice.'"(3) Human Rights Watch went on to praise the U.$.-forced 
provisions that protect its citizens from prosecution by the ICC, 
if the U.$. conducts "good faith investigations" of any Amerikan 
accused of violating its laws. These groups often conduct valuable 
research exposing aspects of United Snakes aggression -- including 
the treatment of its prisoners. But their political line is 
fatally flawed by their support for the United Snakes government, 
and their failure to see in it the biggest international criminals 
of all. They believe -- and propagate -- the lie that the Amerikan 
imperialists will police themselves.

Currently, 27 countries have ratified the ICC treaty, which will 
only be realized when a full 60 have ratified it.



Notes:

1. Toronto Star, Jan. 5, 2001

2. Boston Globe, Jan. 1, 2001

3. HRW Press Release, Dec. 31, 2000. 
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/01/clinsign.htm