Responsibility to Protect or Right to Punish?

The Role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Reducing Massive Human Rights Violations Such as Enforced Disappearances in Africa: Towards Developing Transitional Justice Strategies

“…For some, the fact that only African states have been targeted in itself is indicative of bias. Mahmood Mamdani (2010:61) has argued that ‘[i]ts name not withstanding, the ICC is rapidly turning into a Western court to try African crimes against humanity’. As Fritz (2008) has argued, ‘the rhetoric of condemnation – that the ICC is an agent of neocolonialism and neo‐imperialism, that it is anti‐African – may so damage the institution that … it is simply abandoned’.…”

“…Perceptions of victor's justice are not helpful to the cause in which the Court is involved. Mamdani (2010:61) has argued, for example, that ‘[i]t would be more correct to say, with regard to both Uganda and Sudan, that the ICC's investigation did not just start with one side, it was in fact limited to investigating accusations against just one side’. Thus, more ought to be done to ensure that all those who commit such offences are brought to justice, whether they are members of a country's security forces or those in opposition to the regime.…”

Global constitutionalism, responsibility to protect, and extra-territorial obligations to realize the right to health: time to overcome the double standard (once again)

“…While it is difficult to argue against the idea that the international community ought to take action when governments fail “to protect their own populations from the four crimes of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity” – which most often means governments involved in genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity – we find the present narrow scope of the ‘third wave’ of human rights discourse deeply problematic. Others have criticized the arbitrary application of the R2P doctrine: at times it is applied, at times it is not, and whether it is or not may depend more on political factors than on objective human rights assessments [ 6 ]. While we share this critique, the one we want to develop here is of a somewhat different nature: that the ‘third wave’ of human rights discourse is selective, focusing on severe violations of civil and political human rights (we will call them political human rights in this paper), while turning a blind eye to gross violations of economic, social and cultural human rights (we will call them social human rights in this paper).…”

Building the Rule of War: Postconflict Institutions and the Micro-Dynamics of Conflict in Eastern DR Congo

“… 29. Allen 2006; Branch 2007; Mamdani 2000, 2001, 2010; Massoud 2013; Ottaway 2002; Peskin 2005; Reyntjens 2004; Risse 2011; Rodrik, Subramanian, and Trebbi 2004; Snyder and Vinjamuri 2003; Wagner 1995, 2000. …”