Collected essays, 2008-2010: Debating international justice in Africa
Jun 07, 2010
from the announcement by University of Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies:
Assembling nearly two years of critical debates convened by Oxford Transitional Justice Research, the collection of nearly 60 essays explores the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and other judicial processes at a crucial stage in the development of international justice in Africa. The June 2010 review conference of the ICC in Kampala provides an opportunity to identify the successes and shortcomings of these processes and to lay the foundation for more effective approaches in the future.
The debates in this volume highlight that there is major disagreement over the performance and legacies of international justice institutions in Africa. The purpose of this collection is to deepen discussions of these issues and to provoke new questions about the past and future directions of international justice in Africa.
Note: One essay, The Force of Law and Problem of Impunity, by Yvonne Malan, includes this summary:
This essay focuses on why non-judicial approaches to transitional justice are less effective than is often claimed and why prosecutions are an important way of dealing with past injustice. It is often overlooked that arguments in favour of reconciliation have become a useful way to defend amnesty and impunity. Part of the uproar over Ocampo’s decision is based on a school of thought that has demonised criminal trials as a way of dealing with the past. There are of course other arguments against the ICC’s decision, but what I want to focus on is the prejudice against criminal trials and the dangers of non-judicial approaches.
The following essay, Bashir and the ICC: The aura or audition of international justice in Africa? by Stephen Oola, takes a contrary position:
Over the last four years, Ocampo’s ICC has increasingly resembled a misguided missile. To advocate for punitive justice only for Africa is to miss the target of comprehensive justice in the fight against impunity. Africa comprises societies accustomed to restorative justice approaches. Having suffered atrocities and abuses over decades, the fabric of African societies is torn and demands something more than convictions and imprisonment. The restoration of peace might be the first measure of justice in all of the African situations currently under investigation by the ICC.
Peace is a first measure of justice