Promoting Accountability under International Law for Gross Human Rights Violations in Africa

Promoting Accountability under International Law for Gross Human Rights Violations in Africa
Author: Charles Chernor Jalloh
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 657
Release: 2015-07-14
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9004271759

Promoting Accountability under International Law for Gross Human Rights Violations in Africa is pre-eminently a study on the work and contribution of the first international judicial mechanism, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), devoted exclusively to challenging impunity for serious international crimes committed in Africa. This volume is dedicated to the eminent international jurist Justice Hassan Bubacar Jallow, the Tribunal’s longest serving Chief Prosecutor and the first prosecutor of the United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals. The noted scholar and practitioner contributors discuss various aspects of the law, jurisprudence and practice of the Tribunal over its twenty year existence, while also drawing lessons for current and future international courts such as the International Criminal Court. Themes covered include the role of the international prosecutor; the prosecution of sexual and gender-based crimes; the relationship between national and international courts; the role of other international institutions in challenging impunity; and the role of African languages in international criminal trials. Given its wide ranging substantive coverage, this book will be invaluable to anyone interested in criminal justice, human rights and humanitarian law whether in Africa or other parts of the world.

Amnesty in the Age of Human Rights Accountability

Amnesty in the Age of Human Rights Accountability
Author: Francesca Lessa
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 457
Release: 2012-05-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 110738009X

This edited volume brings together well-established and emerging scholars of transitional justice to discuss the persistence of amnesty in the age of human rights accountability. The volume attempts to reframe debates, moving beyond the limited approaches of 'truth versus justice' or 'stability versus accountability' in which many of these issues have been cast in the existing scholarship. The theoretical and empirical contributions in this book offer new ways of understanding and tackling the enduring persistence of amnesty in the age of accountability. In addition to cross-national studies, the volume encompasses eleven country cases of amnesty for past human rights violations: Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Rwanda, South Africa, Spain, Uganda and Uruguay. The volume goes beyond merely describing these case studies, but also considers what we learn from them in terms of overcoming impunity and promoting accountability to contribute to improvements in human rights and democracy.

The African Criminal Court

The African Criminal Court
Author: Gerhard Werle
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2016-11-29
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9462651507

This book offers the first comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the provisions of the ‘Malabo Protocol’—the amendment protocol to the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights—adopted by the African Union at its 2014 Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. The Annex to the protocol, once it has received the required number of ratifications, will create a new Section in the African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights with jurisdiction over international and transnational crimes, hence an ‘African Criminal Court’. In this book, leading experts in the field of international criminal law analyze the main provisions of the Annex to the Malabo Protocol. The book provides an essential and topical source of information for scholars, practitioners and students in the field of international criminal law, and for all readers with an interest in political science and African studies. Gerhard Werle is Professor of German and Internationa l Crimina l Law, Criminal Procedure and Modern Legal History at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Director of the South African-German Centre for Transnational Criminal Justice. In addition, he is an Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape and Honorary Professor at North-West University of Political Science and Law (Xi’an, China). Moritz Vormbaum received his doctoral degree in criminal law from the University of Münster (Germany) and his postdoctoral degree from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He is a Senior Researcher at Humboldt-Universität, as well as a coordinator and lecturer at the South African-German Centre for Transnational Criminal Justice.

International Criminal Tribunals and Domestic Accountability

International Criminal Tribunals and Domestic Accountability
Author: Patryk I. Labuda
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2023-05-17
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0192639560

In the 1990s, the promise of justice for atrocity crimes was associated with the revival of international criminal tribunals (ICTs). More recently, however, there has been a renewed emphasis on domestic accountability for international crimes across the globe. In identifying a 'complementarity turn', a paradigm shift toward domestic accountability in the field of international criminal justice, this book investigates how the shadow of international criminal tribunals influences the treatment of serious crimes at the national level. Drawing on research and interviews in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone, this book develops a tripartite framework to analyse how states and tribunals work with, despite, or against one another in the fight against impunity. While international prosecutors and judges use the principle of complementarity to foster cooperation and decrease tension with government actors, Patryk I. Labuda argues that too much deference by ICTs toward states reduces the likelihood of accountability and may enable national elites to consolidate authoritarian power. By interrogating how international accountability stakeholders relate to their domestic counterparts, International Criminal Tribunals and Domestic Accountability advocates improvements to ICTs' institutional design and more dynamic interactions with states to strengthen the enforcement of international criminal law.

Accountability for Human Rights Violations by International Organisations

Accountability for Human Rights Violations by International Organisations
Author: Eva Brems
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Human rights
ISBN: 9781780680668

With the proliferation of international organizations and their ever increasing role in a wide range of policy fields, situations multiply in which human rights are threatened or violated through the actions, operations, or policies of such organizations. This book is the first to explore these problems in a comprehensive manner and to examine the accountability mechanisms that are available. In the first section, the contributions study general concepts, such as the accountability of international organizations as an evolving legal concept, international organizations as independent actors, the logic of sliding scales in the law of international responsibility, and the relations between the international organizations and their Member States in regard to their respective obligations and responsibilities. Subsequent parts of the book focus on the accountability for human rights violations attributable to international organizations in four areas: peace and humanitarian operations, international civil administration, economic governance, and the staff of international organizations.

Relationships between International Criminal Law and Other Branches of International Law

Relationships between International Criminal Law and Other Branches of International Law
Author: William A. Schabas
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2022-05-20
Genre: Law
ISBN: 900452150X

This course investigates the relationships between international criminal law and other branches of international law. It begins by examining four issues of general international law: the principal sources of international law, jurisdiction and immunities, State responsibility, and use of force. It then explores internationalhumanitarian law, focusing on definitions of war crimes and difficulties in linking IHL and ICL. Next, it examines refugee law, paying particular attention to the exclusion of war criminals from refugee protection and to international crimes that may be related to the rights and treatment of refugees. The final chapter explores the relationship between ICL and human rights law, examining the position of human rights within the Rome Statute of the ICC, as well as the human rights aspects of genocide, crimes against humanity, various procedural rights relating to fair international trials and the contribution of human rights fact-finding mechanisms.

Doing Justice to History

Doing Justice to History
Author: Barrie Sander
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2021-03-09
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0198846878

This book examines how historical narratives of mass atrocites are constructed and contested within international criminal courts. In particular, it looks into the important question of what tends to be foregrounded, and what tends to be excluded, in these narratives.

Judicial Deference in International Adjudication

Judicial Deference in International Adjudication
Author: Johannes Hendrik Fahner
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2020-08-06
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1509932305

International courts and tribunals are increasingly asked to pass judgment on matters that are traditionally considered to fall within the domestic jurisdiction of States. Especially in the fields of human rights, investment, and trade law, international adjudicators commonly evaluate decisions of national authorities that have been made in the course of democratic procedures and public deliberation. A controversial question is whether international adjudicators should review such decisions de novo or show deference to domestic authorities. This book investigates how various international courts and tribunals have responded to this question. In addition to a comparative analysis, the book provides a normative argument, discussing whether different forms of deference are justified in international adjudication. It proposes a distinction between epistemic deference, which is based on the superior capacity of domestic authorities to make factual and technical assessments, and constitutional deference, which is based on the democratic legitimacy of domestic decision-making. The book concludes that epistemic deference is a prudent acknowledgement of the limited expertise of international adjudicators, whereas the case for constitutional deference depends on the relative power of the reviewing court vis-à-vis the domestic legal order.

The African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples' Rights in Context

The African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples' Rights in Context
Author: Charles C. Jalloh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 1199
Release: 2019-05-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 110842273X

This volume analyses the prospects and challenges of the African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples' Rights in context. The book is for all readers interested in African institutions and contemporary global challenges of peace, security, human rights, and international law. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.