[JURIST] A South African deputy minister said Sunday that the nation will leave the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website], opining that the court has “lost its direction.” Following criticism for ignoring [JURIST report] an ICC directive to arrest the president of Sudan, Obed Bapela of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) [party website] told reporters [Reuters report] that South Africa will continue to uphold “the flag of human rights” independent of the ICC. Bapela indicated that powerful ICC nations “trample” human rights and pursue “selfish interests,” and some African leaders have questioned the ICC’s indictment of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir [BBC report] as being another in a long line of decisions biased against Africans.

In March the ICC requested assistance [JURIST report] from the UN Security Council in affecting the arrest of Bashir. In asking the Council to take “necessary measures” to force Sudan to comply with the ICC investigation, the court noted that without such assistance, the Council’s decision to request investigation into Bashir in 2005 would “never achieve its ultimate goal.” Bashir spent two days in South Africa in mid-June, during which time a judge for South Africa’s highest court issued an order [JURIST] barring Bashir from leaving the country.