Using International Justice to Prevent and Find Solutions to Conflict and Displacement in Africa
The intimate relationship between impunity, mass exodus and regional security in Africa was demonstrated hauntingly by the massive failure of the international community to respond appropriately to the 1994 Rwanda genocide, both prior to the disaster and to the outflow of refugees that followed. Integrating the principles of human rights and international justice into responses to forceddisplacement is a major focus of IRRI’s work. In 2008, IRRI published In the Interests of Justice? Prospects and Challenges for International Justice in Africa, a review of the impact of international justice concepts and mechanisms on the local experience of seeking accountability inAfrica. The review built on a multi-year research and consultation project with experts from Liberia, to the DRC, toSudan and proposed a civil society agenda for research, monitoring and advocacy.
Although the African experience has been critical in developing concepts of international justice through its experience of the ad hoc tribunals and support for the creation of the ICC, there is now considerable tension about the future of these concepts on the continent. African heads of state have vociferously protested the issue of an arrest warrant by the ICC for the Sudanese President. Even friends of the ICC have expressed serious concerns about the conduct of the four African investigations before the Court, pointing to critical missteps in terms of outreach to victim communities and protection of those who support or assist its work. IRRI’s justice programme has two major but intertwined pillars:
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The first focuses on harnessing Africa's regional and sub-regional institutions and mechanisms, in particular the AU and the Great Lakes Pact, to ensure redress for international crimes and the implementation of the principle of the responsibility to protect.
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The second, involves engagement with, and monitoring of, the impact of ICC investigations on African civil society and communities of victims, and exploring the potential for activating the principle of complementarity.
With the Darfur Consortium, IRRI activities have spanned political advocacy with African states on the ICC referral (from its initiation to the Article 16 debate), monitoring the impact of the ICC in Sudan, providing advice and support to the Court, and, most recently, responding to the urgent protection needs of human rights defenders who have promoted international justice.
Recent publications of the International Refugee Rights Initiative related to International Justice:
Just Justice: Civil society, international justice and the search for accountability in Africa, Introductory note to the paper series, January 2012.
A Poisoned Chalice? Local civil society and the International Criminal Court's engagement in Uganda,Just Justice: Civil Society, international justice and the search for accountability in Africa, January 2012.
Lucy Hovil and Moses Chrispus Okello, "Editorial Note, from Special Issue on Civil Society, Social Movements and Transitional Justice" International Journal of Transitional Justice, (2011) 5(3): 333-344
Olivia Bueno, "Activists Question ICC’s Decision on Witness Protection," 23 September 2011
Commentary on the ICC Draft Guidelines on Intermediaries (August 2011)
Olivia Bueno, "Gone But Not Forgotten: Bemba and Congo's 2011 Presidential Elections," BembaTrial.org, August 29, 2011.
IRRI and the Open Society Justice Initiative, "Commentary on the ICC Draft Guidelines on Intermediaries," August 2011
Olivia Bueno, "Appearance of Ituri Militia Fuels Speculation," KatangaTrial.org, April 15, 2011.
Olivia Bueno, "Ngudjolo and Katanga: Their Role in the DRC Conflict and the Need for Broader Accountability," KatangaTrial.org, March 4, 2011
Olivia Bueno, "Will the Big Fish Be Cooked? Congolese Reactions to the Start of the Bemba Trial," BembaTrial.org, December 8, 2010.
Olivia Bueno, "The Lubanga Trial Resumes: Responses from Ituri," LubangaTrial.org, October 13, 2010.
Olivia Bueno, "Kabila’s Visit Highlights Tension Over Lubanga Trial," LubangaTrial.org, September 24, 2010.
Olivia Bueno, "Lubanga’s Missing Co-Perpetrator: Who is Bosco Ntaganda?" LubangaTrial.org, September 15, 2010.
Dismas Nkunda, "The Road to Justice Started with a Game," The Observer, June 2010.