XV Edition GIZ Law Journal

AFRICAN UNION

AFRICAN UNION

Tribunals, Courtsand the Continental Jurisdiction inAfrica

United Nations

who is who?

African Union

International Criminal Court (ICC, Permant Court in The Hague)

Ad hoc Tribunals

By: Karin Pluberg, Ariane Stöhr

African Court of Justice and Human Rights (project)

African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

An article that allows us to see how GIZ projects have been focused on supporting the structure of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, because supporting human rights means supporting justice and development. As already mentioned by the author of this article, Karin Pluberg, in her commentary presented previously “projects supporting a more equal access to justice for all and the enactment of Human Rights legislation have been increasing considerably over the past years and are more and more interlinked with other sectors in a cross-disciplinary manner - this only shows how closely connected rule of law, human rights and development are as necessary preconditions for a sustainable change towards peace and justice altogether”

At its January 2017 summit, the African Union (AU) adopted a strategy document that allegedly calls for a joint withdrawal of African Member States from the ICC. Target: Africa? – Reasons for leaving the ICC Many African countries perceive the ICC – being established by the UN - as an organ influenced by the West, which is not objective, but specifically targeting African leaders. The ICC’s prosecutorial activity in Africa alone shapes the perception of it as being a tool to adjudicate African states and not deployed for the economically rich and powerful states. The reality is that the ICC’s reach is not universal and countries like the United States of America, Russia, China, Japan and India are not under the jurisdiction of the ICC due to their non-ratification of the according legal instrument, the so-called Rome Statute 51 . The reasoning behind is their reluctance of submitting citizens and military officials to a jurisdiction of an international Court. However, the political and public debate often ignores the fact that, in most cases, the government of the affected African State has itself called for investigations. The ICC was established to bring justice for the victims of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. It was designed to function

South Africa: The South African government of President Jacob Zuma has long criticized the International Court as being biased against African states. During the African Union summit in 2015, South Africa failed to arrest ICC fugitive Sudanese President al-Bashir during his visit to the country and was therefore criticized for not complying with its ICC obligations. The Gambia: In October 2015, then President Yahya Jammeh (Presidency from 1994 – 2016) signed a decree to initiate the process of withdrawal from the Rome Statute. This reflects his policy of distancing the country further from its colonial past by thus leaving the Commonwealth in 2013 and declaring The Gambia to be an Islamic Republic in 2015. Burundi: Burundi has been plagued by violence since April 2015, when President Nkurunziza sought a third term. Supporters and opponents of Nkurunziza disagreed as towhether it was legal for him to run again, and protests followed. In April 2016, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda started conducting a “preliminary examination” of the situation in Burundi - the first step towards a full investigation and possible prosecutions - looking into allegations including murder, torture, rape, and forced disappearances. Shortly after, Burundi’s lower house of parliament had overwhelmingly voted in support of a withdrawal from ICC.

“Recent withdrawal declarations from the International Criminal Court (ICC) seated in The Hague, Netherlands and calls for an African Court for African people raise the question: what does the continental criminal justice landscape look like today and how could it change in the future. Recent withdrawals from the ICC In late 2016, South Africa, Burundi and Gambia announced their withdrawal from the ICC, leading to concerns that other African states would follow. This withdrawal announcements capture the African countries’ frustrations with the ICC, however they are based on very diverse reasons for each of the above-mentioned countries.

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51 https://www.icc-cpi.int/nr/rdonlyres/ea9aeff7-5752-4f84-be94-0a655eb30e16/0/rome_statute_english.pdf