Abstract
The impact of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on peace processes has received much scholarly attention. We argue, based on the ICC arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, that ICC indictments against government officials not only can be detrimental to the prospects for peace, but can also negatively affect everyday practices of peacekeepers and humanitarian workers. We draw on a combination of quantitative and qualitative data in order to develop our argument. We interrogate some measurable consequences of the indictment in relation to the work of the United Nations – African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) as well as humanitarian actors in Darfur. We do so using a data set compiled to support the work of UNAMID. We also draw on interviews with UN and UNAMID staff, aid workers, and representatives of the conflict parties. Our analysis shows that the indictment of President al-Bashir was perceived by the Sudanese government as the continuation of a confrontational approach pursued by the international community. We further show that the indictment accelerated patterns of obstruction and intimidation of peacekeeping actors, other third-party actors, and local staff associated with these. This complicated the everyday activities of peacekeepers and humanitarian efforts.
Highlights
The impact of the actions of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on peace processes has received much scholarly attention in recent years.1 Yet ICC indictments have a much broader effect than just on prospects for successful conflict resolution
We present some figures on obstruction and intimidation of UNAMID peacekeepers and aid workers in March 2009, based on situation reports collected by the Joint Mission Analysis Centre (JMAC) between 3 January 2008 and 6 April 2009.6 Ideally, we would have taken levels of obstruction over a longer time period after the issuing of the arrest warrant in March 2009 into account, but the data set made available to us via the African Union High-Level Panel on Darfur does not extend beyond early April 2009
The consequences of the ICC indictment of al-Bashir suggests that this is in particular the case when ICC referrals come from the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the same body overseeing peacekeeping operation mandates
Summary
The impact of the actions of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on peace processes has received much scholarly attention in recent years. Yet ICC indictments have a much broader effect than just on prospects for successful conflict resolution. Vladimir Zhagora, who acted as the Mediation Coordinator in the UN Department of Political Affairs at the time of the indictment against al-Bashir, notes in this regard: The GoS had signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement, the Cairo Agreement, [and] the Darfur Peace Agreement, and it was negotiating with Darfur rebel movements that had not signed the Darfur Peace Agreement It had not received any peace dividend it had been promised in return for signing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement; Sudan had not been taken off the list of state sponsors of international terrorism, and the country had even an arrest warrant against its President – the person who has the sole authority to sign a peace agreement in the first place.. A local NGO staff member states that The ICC indictment against al-Bashir has a strong impact on peacekeeping operations in Sudan, as the regime changed its policy in dealing with UNAMID in term of investigating any claims of human rights violations. After being beaten for almost 10 years, the humanitarian agencies operating in Darfur have become afraid of their own shadow.
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