<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/30/south-africa-grants-putin-and-brics-leaders-diplomatic-immunity-for-summit>
"South Africa has issued blanket diplomatic immunity to all leaders attending
an August summit, meaning Vladimir Putin might be able to travel to
Johannesburg and not fear the country acting on an international criminal court
warrant for his arrest.
South African officials insisted the broad offer of immunity, issued in a
government gazette, may not trump the ICC arrest warrant. As an ICC member,
South Africa would be under pressure, and possibly under a legal requirement,
to arrest Putin. The court issued a warrant for his arrest in March over the
alleged forcible deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.
South Africa is hosting a summit of the Brics group: Brazil, China, India,
Russia and South Africa, in August. A two-day planning meeting of foreign
ministers is due to take place this Thursday.
“This is a standard conferment of immunities that we do for all international
conferences and summits held in South Africa, irrespective of the level of
participation,” the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday. “The
immunities are for the conference and not for specific individuals. They are
meant to protect the conference and its attendees from the jurisdiction of the
host country for the duration of the conference.”
In April, South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, appointed an
inter-ministerial committee headed by his deputy president, Paul Mashatile, to
look into how the law applied to a visit by the Russian president. The
government is looking into the wording of the Rome Statute, the charter that
established the ICC, for a loophole that would enable Putin to attend without
South Africa having to arrest him."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
