Africa and the future of international criminal justice

Africa and the Future of International Criminal Justice examines critical issues concerning Africa as a place in which international criminal accountability mechanisms have played, and still continue to play a prominent role in the efforts to deal with and to tackle impunity for atrocity crimes. It interrogates important questions relating to Africa's importance to international criminal justice as exemplified by the activities of international criminal accountability mechanisms. Some examples are the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The contributions in the volume discuss the contentions about whether Africa is particularly targeted for international justice accountability experiments as well as the politics of international criminal justice. International politics continue to shape Africa's relationship with international justice mechanisms and initiatives as demonstrated by the recent concerns of the African Union about the activities of the ICC in Africa. This publication clarifies that the ICC, as a permanent global international criminal accountability mechanism needs Africa and that Africa needs the ICC for full and effective realization of the normative prescriptions of the Rome Statute in Africa. In this regard the publication places the complementarity principle of the Rome Statute at the centre to enable Africa to take credible ownership of justice for atrocity crimes on the continent.