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Good morning.  It’s with some concern that human rights groups have greeted a recent decision by African leaders to grant themselves immunity from prosecution for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity by a proposed African Court of Justice and Human Rights.   The immunity lasts only while they’re in power, but Amnesty International called the decision a ‘backward step in the long battle for accountability and human rights’.

Justice Matters. That’s the social media campaign launched for today’s International Criminal Justice Day.   It marks the anniversary of the adoption of the Rome statute, a treaty which paved the way for the International Criminal Court to be established in the Hague.  The court helps bring to justice perpetrators of the most serious human rights violations.  ‘Everywhere, people want peace, justice, rule of law and respect for human dignity’, says its current President, himself a survivor of the Korean War in which his grandfather suffered torture. 

Christians believe that justice is fundamental to God’s character.  God cannot but hold people to account for their actions, yet two things are worth bearing in mind:  first, that God’s justice is as applicable to the ordinary person as it is to war criminals, agents of genocide, or indeed, any of the high profile offenders that hit our news headlines.  A disparaging comment, a malicious thought, a lie – all these are offensive to a righteous God.  But second, that God’s justice is inseparable from his grace and mercy, seen most profoundly in the gift of his Son, on whom ‘he laid…the iniquity of us all’.

O God, the King of righteousness, lead us in the ways of justice and of peace; that each may live for all, and all may care for each.  Amen.