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Begin New Search Topic International Criminal Court (ICC) Political Geography Africa

1. Sudan: What Options for Omar Al-Bashir's Trial?

Author:
Chantal Meloni
Publication Date:
05-2020
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI)
Abstract:
For the past 15 years the figure of Omar al-Bashir, the former president of Sudan, has epitomized the struggle of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to fulfill its mandate, i.e. to end impunity for the worst crimes of concern to the international community as a whole. In 2005, the former ICC Prosecutor – Luis Moreno Ocampo - had promptly opened an investigation into the atrocities committed in Darfur after receiving a referral by the United Nations Security Council (Resolution n. 1593 of 2005), which permitted the Court to affirm its jurisdiction over Sudan, not a state party to the ICC. In the context of this investigation, two warrants of arrest were issued against al-Bashir, in 2009 and 2010, for the most serious crimes, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and even charges of genocide. It is estimated that over 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million forced to flee their homes in Darfur as a result of military campaigns led by the Sudanese army and pro-government militias against ethnic minorities since 2003.
Topic:
Genocide, International Law, International Criminal Court (ICC), and Omar al-Bashir
Political Geography:
Africa and Sudan

2. Domestic Prosecution of International Crimes

Author:
Cleo Meinicke
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Public International Law Policy Group
Abstract:
In October 2018, the Bosnian state court indicted a former soldier of crimes against humanity for his involvement in the murder and enforced disappearance of civilians in the Kljuc area. In September of that year, a German court convicted Ibrahim Al F. for war crimes committed in Syria and in the same month a military tribunal in the Democratic Republic of the Congo found two military commanders guilty of crimes against humanity committed in the villages of Kamananga and Lumenje (South Kivu). These are just three recent examples of domestic efforts in the prosecution of those responsible for international crimes. Based on the complementarity principle of the International Criminal Court (ICC), where states are “unwilling or unable” to prosecute international crimes, the ICC may step in to prosecute those most responsible for the commission of the crimes under its jurisdiction, namely genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. However, out of 28 cases before the Court since its inception in 2001 only three resulted in successful convictions. Several suspects were acquitted after lengthy proceedings, of which Gbagbo and Blé Goudé are the latest examples. Therefore, the ICC should be regarded as a last resort while domestic courts carry the main responsibility to prosecute those responsible for international crimes.
Topic:
Crime, International Law, Crimes Against Humanity, and International Criminal Court (ICC)
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Germany, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Bosnia and Hercegovina

3. Basis and Implications of the ICC's Ruling Against Myanmar

Author:
Tanushree Nigam
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Public International Law Policy Group
Abstract:
n a major decision, the International Criminal Court ruled on September 6, 2018 that the Court may exercise jurisdiction over the crime of alleged deportation of the Rohingyas from Myanmar to Bangladesh. The Pre-Trial Chamber accepted the OTP’s argument that the Court may exercise jurisdiction over the crime of cross border deportation of Rohingyas even though the alleged crime had been committed in Myanmar which is not a State Party. The Pre-Trial Chamber stated that this could be done as some “elements of the crime” had taken place in the territory of Bangladesh, which is a State Party. This judgment makes a towering statement that ICC’s jurisdiction is objective rather than subjective in nature. In this post, I discuss the basis and implications of the Chamber’s findings.
Topic:
Legal Theory, International Criminal Court (ICC), Humanitarian Crisis, and Deportation
Political Geography:
Africa, Asia, South Korea, North Korea, and Myanmar

4. Global constitutional order and the deviant other: reflections on the dualistic nature of the ICC process

Author:
Hiroyuki Tosa
Publication Date:
01-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
The purpose of this article is to offer some reflections on how to interpret the International Criminal Court (ICC)’ s fractious relationship with Africa in the context of the historical lineage of a dual structure of the global constitutional order and further scrutinize its implications for life cycles of the international norm. First, we begin by setting out the ICC process (norm emergence) led by middle power sand global civil society during the early post-Cold War period. We then scrutinize the limits of this new normative order by focusing on its dualistic nature, as well as the asymmetrical relation between the Global North and the Global South, in particular African countries. Finally, we reexamine the remaining injustice issue inherent in the liberal normative order by paying attention to structural problems such as the predatory capitalism behind the serious humanitarian crisis, which international judicial interventions seem to have superficially mask.
Topic:
Civil Society, Judiciary, Norms, and International Criminal Court (ICC)
Political Geography:
Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Global South