Africa's Role and Contribution to International Criminal Justice


Book Description

This book explores a range of issues related to the development, application and enforcement of international criminal justice within Africa and on Africa. Written by experts from Africa, and adopting African perspectives, this book seeks to understand the scope and reach of these issues, nationally, regionally and globally. Africa's Role and Contribution to International Criminal Justice engages in theoretical and policy discourses on the substantive and procedural features of criminal law and justice in the African context. A range of topical issues are examined by the contributors, such as the ways in which African states have dealt with issues of universal jurisdiction and how victims are treated, as well as controversial questions concerning how courts function and should function in dealing with these issues. The ideas, themes, institutions, practices, concepts and patterns of convergence of criminal justice systems in Africa are also explored. This book aims to establish a greater understanding of international criminal justice and its relation to Africa, and beyond. Further, it seeks to expand the conversation beyond the narrow topics that are so commonly discussed when matters of African criminal justice are considered.




National Accountability for International Crimes in Africa


Book Description

This book critically examines the issues pertaining to the Rome Statute’s complementarity principle. The focus lies on the primacy of African states to prosecute alleged perpetrators of international crimes in their respective jurisdictions. The chapters explore states’ international and domestic obligations to hold perpetrators of international crimes to account before the national courts, and demonstrate the complexity of enforcing national accountability of alleged perpetrators of international crimes while also ensuring that post-conflict African states achieve national healing, reconciliation, and sustainable peace. The contributions reject impunity for international crimes whilst also considering these complexities. Emphasis further lies on the meaning of accountability in the context of the politics of selective international criminal justice for crimes committed before the establishment of the International Criminal Court.




An African Criminal Court


Book Description

In An African Criminal Court Dominique Mystris offers insight into the potential contribution of a regional criminal court and its place within the international criminal justice discourse, the African Union and the African Peace and Security Architecture.




Prosecuting International Crimes in Africa


Book Description

"Prosecuting international crimes in Africa contributes to the understanding of international criminal justice in Africa. The books argues for the rule of law, respect for human rights and the eradication of a culture of impunity in Africa. it is a product of peer-reviewed contributions from graduates of the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, where the Master's degree programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa has been presented since 2000"--Back cover.




Africa and the International Criminal Court


Book Description

The book deals with the controversial relationship between African states, represented by the African Union, and the International Criminal Court. This relationship started promisingly but has been in crisis in recent years. The overarching aim of the book is to analyze and discuss the achievements and shortcomings of interventions in Africa by the International Criminal Court as well as to develop proposals for cooperation between international courts, domestic courts outside Africa and courts within Africa. For this purpose, the book compiles contributions by practitioners of the International Criminal Court and by role players of the judiciary of African countries as well as by academic experts.




Civil Society and International Criminal Justice in Africa


Book Description

Recent decades have witnessed an increased role for civil society in international law making and the development of international institutions. The design, legal framework and establishment of the International Criminal Court is a key example of this trend. Yet, once international institutions are established, there are few opportunities and mechanisms for civil society to participate directly within the formal proceedings of such institutions, with participation largely limited to states. Nevertheless, civil society groups in Africa are seeking to utilise international and domestic legal frameworks to pursue justice for international crimes committed around the continent and the globe. Indeed, civil society organisations are already playing a key role in domestic international criminal justice procedures in several African countries, with South Africa being a prominent example, as well as before international criminal tribunals, including the International Criminal Court The theme of Civil Society and International Criminal Justice in Africa is the contribution of African civil society organisations to international, regional and national international criminal justice mechanisms. This volume provides a number of perspectives on this theme, with contributions from academics, practitioners, and civil society representatives.




The Justice Laboratory


Book Description

Examining how international criminal law has—and hasn't—brought justice following war crimes in Africa Ever since World War II, the United Nations and other international actors have created laws, treaties, and institutions to punish perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. These efforts have established universally recognized norms and have resulted in several high-profile convictions in egregious cases. But international criminal justice now seems to be a declining force—its energy sapped by long delays in prosecutions, lagging public attention, and a globally rising authoritarianism that disregards legal niceties. This book reviews five examples of international criminal justice as they have been applied across Africa, where brutal civil conflicts in recent decades resulted in varying degrees of global attention and action. The first three chapters examine key international mechanisms: the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and the hybrid tribunal established in Senegal to try state crimes committed in Chad. These chapters illustrate how the design and practice of the institutions led to similarly unexpected and unsatisfying outcomes. The final two chapters examine emerging and proposed international criminal justice mechanisms. One is a tribunal intended to facilitate peace in the new but war-torn country of South Sudan, not yet operational and unlikely to perform better than its predecessors. Finally, the book considers the developing human rights practice of the little-studied East African Court, a regional commercial court in Arusha, Tanzania, to show how local judicial creativity can win a role for courts in facilitating good governance. Written in an accessible style, this book explores the connections between politics and the doctrine of international criminal law. Highlighting little-known institutional examples and under-discussed political situations, the book contributes to a broader international understanding of African politics and international criminal justice, as well as the lessons the African experiences offer for other regions.




Promoting Accountability under International Law for Gross Human Rights Violations in Africa


Book Description

Promoting Accountability under International Law for Gross Human Rights Violations in Africa is pre-eminently a study on the work and contribution of the first international judicial mechanism, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), devoted exclusively to challenging impunity for serious international crimes committed in Africa. This volume is dedicated to the eminent international jurist Justice Hassan Bubacar Jallow, the Tribunal’s longest serving Chief Prosecutor and the first prosecutor of the United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals. The noted scholar and practitioner contributors discuss various aspects of the law, jurisprudence and practice of the Tribunal over its twenty year existence, while also drawing lessons for current and future international courts such as the International Criminal Court. Themes covered include the role of the international prosecutor; the prosecution of sexual and gender-based crimes; the relationship between national and international courts; the role of other international institutions in challenging impunity; and the role of African languages in international criminal trials. Given its wide ranging substantive coverage, this book will be invaluable to anyone interested in criminal justice, human rights and humanitarian law whether in Africa or other parts of the world.




Africa and International Criminal Justice


Book Description

This book provides an overview of crimes under international law, radical evils, in a number of African states. This overview informs a critical analysis of the debates surrounding the African Union’s call for withdrawal from the International Criminal Court and proposes a way forward with a more pertinent role for the Court. The work critically analyzes the arguments around withdrawal from the ICC and the extension of the jurisdiction of the African Court into criminal matters. It is held that this was not intended in the spirit of complementarity as envisaged by the Rome Statute, and is subject to political calculation and manipulation by national governments. Recasting the ICC as a court of second instance would provide a stronger institutional and jurisdictional regime. The book will be a valuable resource for students, academics, and policymakers working in the areas of international humanitarian law, international criminal law, African studies, and genocide studies.




Africa and the ICC


Book Description

Africa and the ICC: Perceptions of Justice comprises contributions from prominent scholars of different disciplines including international law, political science, cultural anthropology, African history and media studies. This unique collection provides the reader with detailed insights into the interaction between the African Union and the International Criminal Court (ICC), but also looks further at the impact of the ICC at a societal level in African states and examines other justice mechanisms on a local and regional level in these countries. This investigation of the ICC's complicated relationship with Africa allows the reader to see that perceptions of justice are multilayered.