The International Criminal Court’s Involvement with Africa: Evaluation of a Fractious Relationship

Abstract

This article examines the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) role in relation to international crimes allegedly committed in Africa; it considers the difficulties and obstacles that the ICC has encountered in securing the co-operation of not only States Parties but also of non-States Parties which, in certain instances, are mandated to assist it; and it analyses the acrimonious relationship that has arisen between the African Union (AU), the Continent’s political and security organisation, and the ICC. Thus far, the two most significant sources of antagonism between the ICC and Africa have been the arrest warrants against President al-Bashir of Sudan in relation to the situation in Darfur, and the crimes against humanity allegedly perpetrated during Kenya’s post-election violence in 2007–2008. Finally, the article examines the continuing attempts by African States to amend Article 16 of the Rome Statute.

The AU Debacle with the ICC: The Creation of the African Criminal Court

“…The relationship between the ICC and AU became deteriorated when the ICC started indicting sitting AU heads of states especially President Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice President Ruto Williams of Kenya as well President Omar Al Bashir of Sudan. [4] Their indictments provoked the AU to hold a series of meetings which accelerated the process resulting in the establishment of the ACC in 2014; 12 years after the ICC came into force. Additionally, before the creation of the ICC, the AU and African state members had good and understandable relationship throughout all the processes leading to the creation of the ICC.…”

Procedural justice and global order: Explaining African reaction to the application of global protection norms

“…Here too, African states and organizations were among the first proponents of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the underlying norm of holding individuals accountability for mass crimes in the non-Western world, and their support was crucial to the adoption of the Rome Statute. Yet, early applications of said norm -most importantly the warrant for Sudanese President Al Bashir, prompted the AU to question its support for the ICC and catalyzed the search for an African version of international criminal justice (Magliveras and Naldi 2013). Given these setbacks, the Ivorian case provides rare encouragement for proponents of global norms and accentuates the puzzle concerning disparate African reactions to applications of global norms.…”