Kenya's ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Lazarus Amayo sent out a request to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on behalf of African heads of state and government.
Amb. Amayo requested the UN boss to include a question by the African states in the agenda of a meeting that will be held by the General Assembly in September.
The envoy sought an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on immunity for heads of state and government and other senior state officials.
The question came as a resolution from the African Union (AU) in January after a number of complaints from member states.
[caption caption="President Uhuru Kenyatta alongside UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issuing a joint presser from State House when UN boss visited Kenya in March 2017"]
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Kenya, Burundi and the Gambia had registered concerns that the international court was targetting African leaders with prosecution as a hand for Western nations.
The nations further complained that the apparent stronghandedness by the court was undermining the sovereignty of the African nations.
The argument presented by the three nations in 2016 paved way for a call for the mass withdrawal of member states from the International Criminal Court (ICC) with Nigeria and Senegal being the only nations that opposed the proposition.
The resolution to withdraw was passed in January 2018, however, it was non-binding to the AU nations.
Amayo's letter partly reads, ".... in recent years, the issue of immunities has become one of the most pressing issues in international law."
Further, it observes that UN member states "will benefit from a General Assembly request for an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice that will provide clarity to the evident ambiguity and to competing obligations under international law."
[caption caption="Kenyan envoy to the United Nations Lazarus Amayo with President of the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly Miroslav Lajčák on July 4, 2018"]
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