South Africa’s justice minister says that he intends to pull out of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The ICC is a permanent international court established to investigate, prosecute and try individuals accused of committing the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.

Today, South Africa’s decision to leave the court has been ruled unconstitutional.

South Africa is not alone in its dissatisfaction with the ICC. Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni has also called the court “useless.” African nations of Burundi, Gambia, Kenya, and Namibia have issued similar proclamations.

Gambia’s president said the court was an “‘International Caucasian Court’ for the persecution and humiliation of people of color, especially Africans.”

The decision to leave the court came after South African officials refused to arrest Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir after the ICC had charged him with alleged war crimes in 2015.

Currently, thirty four African nations are a part of the court which comprises the largest regional bloc of the 122 countries that volunteered to be under the courts jurisdiction. Yet, many would argue that the majority of the leaders prosecuted and subsequently jailed are African.

Many African leaders are now accusing the court of bias.

Nine of the ten current cases under investigation by the court are in African countries.

The ICC has said itself it simply does not have the power to investigate countries in the west, known in international relations as the “global north.”

South Africa’s advocating to leave the ICC has left many Western leaders and international groups fearful that this will lead to a mass exodus of African countries from the court.

A Michigan Congressman has re-introduced legislation to provide reparations to African Americans before the 115^th Congress.

At 87 years old John Conyers is unrelenting. The legislation, known as H.R. 40 seeks to do the following:
“To address the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, its subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.”

Conyers said, “I’m not giving up” and that “slavery is a blemish on this nation’s history, and until it is formally addressed, our country’s story will remain marked by this blight.”

Beginning in 1989, Conyers a member of the House Judiciary Committee has repeatedly introduced HR. 40, a bill that would establish a commission to examine the institution of slavery in the U.S. and its early colonies, and provide appropriate recommendations.

On August 18 2016, the United Nations concluded the history of slavery in the United States justifies reparations for African Americans, “In particular, the legacy of colonial history, enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the United States remains a serious challenge, as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent,” the report stated. “Contemporary police killings and the trauma that they create are reminiscent of the past racial terror of lynching.”

Some would argue that former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton offered apologies, however, their action were merely symbolic that purposely left out monetary claims.

The U.S. and select nations of the world have provided reparations to marginalized groups in the past, for example in 1980 for Japanese Americans who were placed in U.S. internment camps during World War II, restoration of lands to Native Americans, and the billions that Germany paid to Jewish Holocaust survivors.

Conyers bill, H.R. 40, is numbered in recognition of the unfulfilled promise to freed slaves of “40 acres and a mule.”

The harm caused by slavery has impacted descendants. After decades of Jim Crow segregation there has been racial discrimination and policies that still affect many African-Americans today in education, housing, healthcare, and the criminal justice system Conyers told Congress in a letter.

This past week, the American people saw the highly contested confirmation of Jeff Sessions take place. And it was yesterday that many in the black community, aware of Sessions political ideology were in no way surprised by the three executive orders signed by President Trump.

The newly minted Attorney General is the head of the Department of Justice. For those who are unaware, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is a cabinet-level agency responsible for enforcing the laws of the United States federal government. DOJ ensures public safety against foreign and domestic threats, including terrorism, and preventing crime.

The three executive orders will focus on “gang members, drug dealers, drug cartels and crimes against law enforcement officers.” The orders also give more authority to law enforcement.

President Trump referred to these orders as “public safety” orders reducing “the threat of rising crime.” The President then went on to say “I am directing the Department of Justice to reduce crimes and crimes of violence against law enforcement officers.” “It’s a shame, what has been happening to our great, our truly great, law enforcement officers. That is going to stop today.”

During his confirmation ceremony, Sessions said the U.S. has “a crime problem” and then went on to say “I wish the rise that we’re seeing in crime in America today were some sort of aberration or a blip. My best judgement, having been involved in criminal law enforcement for many years, is that this is a dangerous, permanent trend that puts the health and safety of America at risk.”

If one follows current events, the executive orders should not be an absolute shocker. Last week at the beginning of Black History Month, Pastor Darrell Scott in meeting with the President said he met with local gang leaders in Chicago.

“They’re going to commit that if they lower the body count, we come and do some social programs. They want to work with this administration. THEY reached out. I didn’t reach out to them” Scott stated.

It was confirmed later on in the week that the meeting with local gang members never occurred. Scott stated that he had ‘misspoke’ due to lack of sleep.

Nevertheless, those watching closely saw his statement for what it was, a political performance play. Those in the black community were indirectly being told what would happen in our inner cities if crime did not quell. The stage had been set.

The President made reference to “the threat of rising crime” while there has been constant outcry by those in the black community after police shootings of black civilians. President Trump did not mention accountability measures that police should be subject to when speaking of enforcement reform.

In 2016 1,153 people were killed by police, according to KilledByPolice.net.

http://www.killedbypolice.net/kbp2016.html

The President has misrepresented crime statistics before. For example, he was correct when he cited a statistic from the Brennan Center for Justice, which found that, in the largest 30 cities, homicides increased by 14 percent from 2015 to 2016. But in that data set, one outlier city – Chicago – was responsible for 43.7 percent of the total increase in homicide rates in 2016.

These executive orders have a quotidian aura to them. Reminiscent of the time Bill Clinton presided over the largest increase in federal and state prison inmates of any president in American history. Clinton supported the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity for crack versus powder cocaine, which produced staggering racial injustice in sentencing and boosted funding for drug-law enforcement.

Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow explained it perfectly, saying that when Clinton left office in 2001, the United States had the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Human Rights Watch reported that in seven states, African Americans constituted 80 to 90 percent of all drug offenders sent to prison, even though they were no more likely than whites to use or sell illegal drugs. Prison admissions for drug offenses reached a level in 2000 for African Americans more than 26 times the level in 1983. All of the presidents since 1980 have contributed to mass incarceration, but as Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson recently observed, “President Clinton’s tenure was the worst.”

The alarm has been triggered. It is up to us as Americans, especially Black Americans to be vigilant in lieu of these orders and act accordingly. Strategies will be needed on how to combat what is already here and say not this time. WE see you.

Emilsen Manyoma, a prominent Afro-Colombian human rights activist, advocating for the rights of fellow Afro-Colombians was killed on January 17 2017. Her body along with her partners, Joe Javier Rodallega was found in an advanced state of decomposition in a jungle area beside the highway in the coast city of Buenaventura. Both had been beheaded.

The couple had been missing since Saturday. Manyoma, 32 played a key role in addressing and documenting attacks on human rights leaders in the region as part of the recently created Truth Commission.

Since 2005, Manyoma was active in the community network, CONPAZ where she spoke out against right wing paramilitary groups and the displacement of locals by international mining and agribusiness interest.

CONPAZ, the main national Black organization in the National Afro-Colombian Peace Council has demanded and lobbied the Colombian government to bring Afro-Colombian voices and interests to be addressed during the formation of the peace agreement which was voted against.

If passed, the peace agreement between the government and the country’s leftwing, guerrilla organization, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) would have ended over fifty years of civil war. The agreement would have benefited those living in poverty in addition to Afro-Colombians living in rural and urban areas.

The death of Manyoma and Javier Rodallega is not uncommon for many Afro-Colombians, who make up 10.6% of the overall population. Yet, bear the brunt of killings in Colombia: murder, forced displacements in the countryside, and are often caught between fighting of guerrillas in the region and paramilitaries backed by the state and financed by drug traffickers and multinational corporations.

Fast forward seven years later, and many of us (excluding the ones in the know previously to Obama’s presidency) have come to the realization that President Obama’s administration has seemingly served every other group in America besides the Black community, who ironically were his loudest and proudest supporters. Although the 2016 election is still over a year and-a-half away, hopefuls are already gearing up and positioning themselves to be chosen as the next president.

Perhaps the most valuable lesson learned from our drunken euphoric state during Obama’s time in office is that political power is useless without group economic power, which other groups have embraced wholeheartedly. As of late, the dialogue in the Melanoid community has shifted from the need for political reform in our communities, to the need for economic empowerment. As new candidates step to the forefront who clearly don’t have Black America’s best interests in mind, will this force us to learn to depend more on each other for our own salvation, as opposed to ‘extending a hand’ to strangers, as we have done countless times in years past? Or will we allow ourselves to once again fall into the endless cycle that is American politics in hopes of Melanoid Empowerment?

This is a woman who felt that Obama’s presidency would fix our issues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36x8rTb3jI

Stephen A. Smith feels that we should just turn to the Republican Party to remedy our situation.

by B. Clark