Mike J. Masoud
June 29, 2021
On July 22, 2014, I was shocked when I read an opinion in the Washington Post entitled “We need an international court to stamp out corruption,” written by Mark L. Wolf. He was a senior U.S. district judge for the District of Massachusetts. I shared my fears with a few of my colleagues at The AACI. Politicizing such a court was my primary concern. But after seven years, I decided to support the establishment of an International Anti-Corruption Court (IACC) similar to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Kleptocrats are in Control
Kleptocrats, including individuals in positions of power, dominate nearly all aspects of the judiciary, government, and legislation in the majority of corrupt countries. Kleptocrats take their citizens and countries hostage. In many countries, corrupt leaders cannot be touched by their local government because they are in control of all aspects of governance. But people especially the vulnerable pay off the price of corruption.
When a country is not capable or unwilling to prosecute the corrupt, then the only path is to bring the kleptocrats to the IACC.
Integrity International Initiatives
“In 2016, Judge Wolf, Justice Richard Goldstone of South Africa, and other colleagues created Integrity Initiatives International to institutionalize the effort to create the Court and to promote other measures to strengthen the enforcement of criminal laws against kleptocrats.”
“Mark Wolf, Chair of III, and Richard Goldstone, III Board Member, gave a briefing on the International Anti-Corruption Court for UN delegations and members of civil society on May 25, 2021. The Slovakian Ambassador to the UN Michal Mlynár also shared remarks.” 1
100-plus World Leaders Call for An International Anti-Corruption Court
On June 10, 2021, Integrity Initiatives International announced “that more than one hundred world leaders from over forty countries have signed a Declaration calling for the creation of an International Anti-Corruption Court. The Declaration advocates for a new international court to address the global problem of Grand Corruption – the abuse of public office for private gain by a nation’s leaders (kleptocrats) – which thrives in many countries and has devastating consequences for human rights, human health, and international peace and security. Signatories to the Declaration include:
- former President of Colombia and Nobel Laureate Juan Manuel Santos
- former President of Tunisia Moncef Marzouki
- former Prime Minister of Sweden Carl Bildt
- Nobel Laureate and former Judge Shirin Ebadi of Iran
- former Foreign Minister of Canada Lloyd Axworthy
- former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Peter MacKay
- former UN High Commissioners for Human Rights Navi Pillay and Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein
- former Judge Claudia Escobar Mejía of Guatemala
- President of the International Bar Association Sternford Moyo
- Chair of the Munich Security Conference Wolfgang Ischinger “
Click here to read the Declaration.
Notes
1 Read more on http://www.integrityinitiatives.org/multimedia
