Africa And International Criminal Justice

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.

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.

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.

"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 has been at the forefront of contemporary global efforts towards ensuring greater accountability for international crimes. But the continent's early embrace of international criminal justice seems to be taking a new turn with the recent resistance from some African states claiming that the emerging system of international criminal law represents a new form of imperialism masquerading as international rule of law. This book analyses the relationship and tensions between the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Africa. It traces the origins of the confrontation between African governments, both acting individually and within the framework of the African Union, and the permanent Hague-based ICC. Leading commentators offer valuable insights on the core legal and political issues that have confused the relationship between the two sides and expose the uneasy interaction between international law and international politics. They offer suggestions on how best to continue the fight against impunity, using national, ICC, and regional justice mechanisms, while taking into principled account the views and interests of African States.

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.

"The dynamics of enforcing international criminal justice through the International Criminal Court (ICC) has become a challenging exercise in Africa. At times the uneasy relationship between the ICC, the African Union and a few influential African states has given rise to concerns about the future of international criminal justice in general, and in Africa in particular. Still, the enthusiasts for international criminal justice as enforced by the ICC, interpret the challenges the ICC is encountering in Africa as part of the growing pains of a new institution in the international system. The distractors have already prepared the ICC's obituary. One of the criticisms levelled against the ICC, and which is the motivation for, and central theme behind, this book is that it has morphed and ceased to be an independent legal institution instead becoming a political tool utilised by politically powerful states in the West against their political opponents in Africa. More specifically the Court is alleged to be selectively enforcing international criminal law by merely officially opening investigations and prosecutions in Africa. Although this book recognises that selective implementation of criminal justice is acceptable both at the domestic and international level, it analyses the legal and political factors behind the Court's focus on international crimes committed in Africa when there are other situations to which the court should potentially turn its attention, such as in Syria, Afghanistan or the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The book seeks to determine whether such a focus implies that Africa has the monopoly over international crimes or whether African victims or perpetrators are any different from those in the Middle East? In addition the book attempts to uncover the basis and the validity of the African Union and some African states' criticisms of the ICC." -- Back cover

While the ICC can be said to contribute to criminal justice in Africa, it cannot be denied that the relationship between the Court and the continent has been troublesome. The ICC has been accused of targeting Africa, and many African states do not seem willing to cooperate with the Court. Debates on Africa and international criminal justice are increasingly politicised.