Prosecution of Crimes against Humanity and Genocide in Africa: A Comparative Analysis
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Date
2010-12
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Despite years of impunity in Africa, the 1990s saw the perpetrators of some of the atrocities in
the continent face trials. However, all these efforts are varied. Some countries went through
prosecuting perpetrators of crimes against humanity and genocide through their domestic
courts, while other perpetrators were brought before international ad hoc tribunals. Moreover,
as of 1 July, 2002, the first permanent international criminal tribunal in the world’s history, the
International Criminal Court (ICC) had also pursued such perpetrators. These all efforts show
the lack of uniform organized approach to dealing with crimes against humanity and genocide in
the continent. This in turn leaves the issue of prosecution to the whim of governments and
international organizations like the United Nations. This means prosecutions could only happen
when these governments and organizations want it. This scenario encourages impunity as
leaders of some governments seek to shy away from prosecuting such crimes for a reason of
comradeship with the alleged perpetrators or fearing that they would one day face such
prosecution themselves. On the other hand, it might happen that by prosecuting, governments
want to send some political message to their opponents. The case of the United Nations Security
Council is also not different. The taking of action by the Security Council depends on the
political priority of the members as it is also a political organ. All in all, the consideration of
prosecuting crimes against humanity and genocide would to a large extent be based on non-legal
considerations, rather than ending the fight against impunity. The existence of impunity in the
continent, in turn, creates a peace and security threat as victims look to the bushes rather than
the court room to bring justice for the crimes they thought were perpetrated against them. This
paper studies the legal frameworks or systems upon which the prosecutions took place, the
challenges they faced or will face in the future and recommend the best system for prosecuting
crimes against humanity and genocide in Africa by selecting five legal frameworks; the ICC, the
Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Ethiopian Legal frame work for the prosecution of crimes
against humanity and genocide, Senegal legal frame work for the Prosecution of Hissene Habre,
and the Rwandan Legal frame work, including the ICTR.
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Keywords
Despite years of impunity in Africa