IT has been a horrible past few weeks for the much maligned and troubled International Criminal Court (ICC).
Three African countries have this month announced their withdrawal from the widely-discredited supposed upholder of justice and equality.
And they are right to withdraw.
The court has not been just at all.
It has been a shamelessly biased tribunal.
The ICC was established to handle the world’s worst crimes.
But in its operations, it has only targeted Africa, as if it was established to only deal with the continent.
Since it began operations on July 1 2002, the ICC has been a classic epitome of selective enforcement of law and an extension of Western imperialism towards African countries.
And Africa has refused to be abused by a brazenly hostile creation of the West.
It started with South Africa, then Burundi followed suit and now The Gambia has also announced its withdrawal from the embattled ICC.
It is The Gambia’s reasons for withdrawing that sums up the twisted state of affairs at the ICC.
The Gambia says the tribunal focused on the ‘persecution and humiliation of people of colour, especially Africans’.
Even as it was being set up, it was clear for all to see that here was a project designed to systematically persecute Africans and their leadership.
The first leader of the ICC, Argentinian lawyer Luis Moreno-Ocampo, was a controversial character himself.
It is not surprising that of the nine ‘situations’ the ICC has opened investigations into; all of them are from Africa.
In these nine ‘situations’ investigations have been carried into the Democratic Republic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, the Central African Republic I, Darfur, Sudan, the Republic of Kenya, Libya, the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, the Republic of Mali and the Central African Republic II. 
The ICC says the list of indictments ‘includes all individuals who have been indicted on accounts of genocides, crimes against humanity, war crimes or contempt of court in the ICC pursuant to the Rome Statute.
In June last year, the ICC tried to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir during an African Union (AU) Summit in South Africa even when the host had extended an invitation to the North African leader.
President Bashir has since 2008 been pursued by the ICC on ‘charges’ of genocide.
This is despite the fact that the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Darfur found in 2005 that Bashir’s Government had not pursued genocide in the Darfur region as alleged by the ICC.
Yet Moreno-Ocampo tried to ignore the UN Commission’s findings.
Therein lies the problem.
The ICC was not only founded by Western countries, but is funded by them as well.
It cannot say anything against its Western handlers when 66 percent of its budget comes from the European Union (EU) according to South African ruling party ANC’s head of international relations sub-committee Obed Bapela.
“There is so much wrong happening in the ICC. It is not designed for dealing with Africa countries,” Bapela told The Mail and Guardian newspaper in the aftermath of the President Bashir fiasco.
“And there is an issue with funding – 66 percent of its money comes from the EU.”
To cushion its owners from possible prosecution, the ICC put a clause in their constitution which states that it can only deal with crimes committed after 2002, which was deliberate as it enabled its handlers to navigate away from the horrors of the days of slavery and colonialism.
But then in October last year, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted he had erred in joining America’s senseless war against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Blair together with his partner in crime and former United States President George Bush are suitable candidates for indictment at the ICC.
But not so with the ICC.
After the indictment of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta soon after his assumption of office on April 9 2013, it became clear the ICC views supposedly ‘weaker’ nations as always wrong and the ‘strong’ as always right.
It is said the United States has not ratified the 1998 Rome Statute, the Treaty founding the ICC, because it is concerned that its foreign troops would face prosecution.
With Africa pulling out of the ICC in droves, it shows that with one voice the continent can successfully push its agendas.