Using International Justice to Prevent and Find Solutions to Conflict and Displacement in Africa
The last two decades have seen a profusion of conflict in Africa accompanied by extensive human rights and humanitarian law violations. The Great Lakes and Greater Mano River regions in West Africa have been the sites of a series of interconnected conflicts, with millions forced to flee widespread and systematic atrocity. Having failed to prevent these horrific events, states in the region and internationally hoped that punishing the leading authors of these crimes might contribute to the reestablishment of peace.
Africa has thus found itself at the hub of developments in international justice, with the expansion of the reach of international criminal law and the creation of new mechanisms to hold perpetrators of serious international crimes accountable. This has included the creation of two tribunals intended to address particular situations, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the launching of four investigations by the International Criminal Court in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Sudan.
The International Refugee Rights Initiative is working to build a deeper understanding of the impact of international justice in Africa. This effort began with a consultation with regional experts to review the experience of international justice in Africa. The first reflections from this project were presented at a workshop held in Kampala on 17 July 2008, the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The final review was published in November 2008 and launched in Abuja and the Hague. The report In the Interests of Justice? Prospects and Challenges for International Justice in Africa provides an overview of how international justice concepts, mechanisms and strategies have been deployed in Africa since the creation of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
It documents important developments, highlights opportunities and gaps and articulates areas of policy concern for a more effective deployment of international justice in Africa. The report provides a starting point for the building of an informed constituency for international justice on the continent that will serve to monitor and hold international justice to account in Africa.
Recent publications of the International Refugee Rights Initiative related to International Justice:
Dismas Nkunda, "The Road to Justice Started with a Game," The Observer, June 2010
An Expert Consultation in Advance of the Preparatory Meeting of African State Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court for the Rome Statute Review Conference, October 2009
En francais.
African Civic Leaders, Nobel Laureates and Justice Experts Urge African Union Leaders to Support International Criminal Court Process in Sudan, June 2009
In French.
Letter to African ICC State Parties, June 2009.
"The Reaction to the Arrest Warrant against Sudanese President Al-Bashir," Refugee Rights News, Volume 5, Issue 2, April 2009.
"The Outreach Challenge of the Lubanga Trial: Another First for the International Criminal Court,"Refugee Rights News, Volume 5, Issue 2, April 2009.
"Confronting a Deficit: Decades of Injustice in northern Uganda," African Transitional Justice Newsletter, pp 3-4, February 2009.
"ASP Selects Kampala as Venue for Review Conference and Elects Judges," Refugee Rights News, Volume 5, Issue 1, February 2009.