Apart from the ICC, there are other mechanisms to ensure a transparent, effective and accountable government.
Johannesburg - The debate over membership of South Africa to the International Criminal Court (ICC) has again raised the matter of accountability of governments across the world.
It is a myth that African governments do not want to be held accountable as suggested numerously in a barrage of articles published following the non-arrest of President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan in South Africa earlier last month after his attendance at the AU Summit.
The reality of African consciousness for accountability is starkly different.
Quite apart from voluntarily signing up to the ICC, our government has signed to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), as well as the Open Government Partnership (OGP), as programmes aimed at ensuring that we lead a government that is transparent, people-centred and responsive to the needs of the millions of our people who still suffer from the legacy of apartheid’s selective development.
South Africa joined the APRM in March 2003.
The mandate of the APRM is to ensure that the policies and practices of participating states conform to the agreed political, economic and corporate governance values, codes and standards on democracy, political, economic and corporate governance as contained in the 2003 Abuja Declaration on democracy, political, economic and corporate governance.
The primary purpose of the APRM is to foster the adoption of policies, standards and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated sub-regional and continental economic integration through sharing of experiences and reinforcement of best practices. The mechanism is unique in its scope and breadth, with the review process extending to all levels of government, Parliament and the judiciary as well as the private sector and civil society organisations.
South Africa was among the first countries to be peer-reviewed and subsequently underwent a self-assessment process by the African Peer Review Panel of Eminent Persons (APR Panel)-led team in July 2005.
This process resulted in the release of a Country Review Report that produced the APRM National Programme of Action (NPoA). The APRM Country Review Report and the NPoA were officially presented to the public in September 2007 and since then the country has submitted three progress reports on the NPoA to the APR forum.
South Africa is preparing for the APRM’s Second Generation Review which will be the first periodic review.
The periodic review will appraise to what extent the NPoA is being implemented and its continued relevance on the basis of which a new or revised NPoA would be proposed and adopted.
South Africa is also a signatory to the Open Government Partnership. Complementary to the APRM, the partnership is an international, voluntary effort to improve government performance, encourage civic participation and enhance government responsiveness to the people.
It is a response to the 21st century call for more transparent, effective and accountable governments – with institutions that empower citizens and are responsive to their aspirations.
The OGP aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. To achieve these objectives, it brings together governments and civil society organisations as true partners in the process.
South Africa joined seven other countries, namely: Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, the UK and the US in launching the initiative in September 2011. South Africa has served on the OGP steering committee since its inception in 2011. It was also among the first cohort of OGP member countries to submit and implement an OGP country action plan that was reviewed by the Independent Review Mechanism.
Today our country is a co-chair of the OGP. Many bodies have been created to address socio-political issues the world over and the OGP has within its systems organisations whose interest is to look into the extractive industry sector of the economy.
As a country we have raised the fact that the pharmaceutical industry needs scrutiny in the way it makes it difficult for the world to timeously deal with diseases where there are no cheaper generic alternatives to the patented brands.
These two areas have on the one hand posed the potential to wipe out regions and people as a result of the uncontrollable spread of disease and on the other hand the capability of raping the mineral wealth of countries by multinationals sometimes in collusion with the political elite.
With this said, one really wonders why most of the countries who are “custodians” of world peace do not want to be subjected to the ICC given that their military industrial complexes are what start and sustain wars and strife in Africa.
Notwithstanding reservations about the ICC, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights established the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights which has successfully tried and finalised a number of cases.
This is an indication that Africa is prepared to be held accountable
.
The Star