DISCLAIMER:

PluriCourts, a Centre for the Study of the Legitimate Roles of the Judiciary in the Global Order, has advertised for a position of Research Fellow. The research fellow will study international courts and tribunals (ICs) concerning one or more of the research topics addressed by PluriCourts: the multidimensional legitimacy standards which include multilevel separation of authority, independence and accountability, performance and comparative advantages. PluriCourts also aims to identify best practi...

Oumar Ba's new book: States of Justice: The Politics of the International Criminal Court (Cambridge University Press, 2020) is out. The book explores how states that are considered weaker have leveraged the International Criminal Court in pursuit of their political and security interests. More on the book here.

Opinio Juris will organise a symposium on the book in August that will feature reviews by our members, Nestor Nkurunziza and Nabil M. Orina, among others.

African Yearbook of International law

Volume 24 (2019-2020)

Call for papers

The Editors of the African Yearbook of International Law are making preparation for Volume 24of the Yearbookand would like to invite scholarly contributions in the form of an article, note, commentary (on recent developments in Africa or outside events of particular relevance to Africa), or a short digest of State practice or judicial decisions in African countries.

The structure of Volume 24 will be more or less the...

Uganda's National Transitional Justice Policy was approved by the Cabinet on 17 June 2019.

As Northern Uganda continues to recover from a brutal and mass conflict, there are perplexing experiences that hinder its post conflict recovery. A fascinating aspect relates to the way in which vulnerable victims are reintegrated within the communities.

Northern Uganda was engulfed in a civil conflict in 1987, that went on for a duration of more than a decade. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel movemen...

This article was originally published on Justiceinfo.net.

On 30 June, the King of the Belgians, for the first time, expressed his "regrets" to the Congolese people for the suffering caused by colonial rule. A week earlier, the Belgian parliament had initiated the creation of a "truth commission" on the colonial past in Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. The outline of this commission is to be defined by 21 July. It is expected to be set up in September.

Statue of King Léopold II of Belgium vandalized in Ghe...

This article was originally published on Justiceinfo.net

In January 2008, in front of a burning barricade in Nairobi's Kibera district. © Roberto Schmidt / AFP

It is now seven years since my colleagues and I released the Final Report of the Kenyan Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC). With one minor exception, none of its many recommendations have been taken seriously by the government, much less implemented. None of the individuals identified as responsible for serious crimes, includi...

Dans le système de la Cour pénale internationale, il est prévu le mécanisme de réparation au profit d’un inculpé dont la détention s’est relevée irrégulière ou injustifiée. Cette logique, portée par les dispositions de l’article 85 du Statut portant création de la Cour et complétées par celles des règles 173 à 175 du Règlement de procédure et de preuve, est l’une des garanties nécessaires à l’effectivité de l’équité procédurale. Le cas Jean-Pierre Bemba est le premier dans l’histoire de la Cour.

Po...

This article was originally published on JusticeInfo.net. It adds to the discussion on what to expect next after Félicien Kabuga was arrested on 16 May 2020. 

Félicien Kabuga, the great paymaster of the Rwandan regime in the early 1990s, accused of genocide, was arrested on 16 May in France. For 23 years, he had escaped international justice. His surprise arrest raises many questions. Including that of a "reopening" of the UN Tribunal for Rwanda.

It is arguably the most remarkable flight of an accus...

[Updated]

The news of the arrest of one of Rwandan genocide most wanted suspects Félicien Kabuga is without doubt the biggest news in the ICL sphere this year. Kabuga is reported to have been arrested in the outskirts of Paris after 26 years on the run. Kabuga was indicted by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (UNICTR) in 1997 (amended indictment issued in 2011) on several counts of genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt...

In the midst of the current global crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, two West African states namely, Benin and Cote d’Ivoire have moved to withdraw their Declaration under Article 34(6)[1]of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights that grants individuals and NGOs direct access to the Continental Court. 

The Republic of Benin through its embassy in Ethiopia issued the notice on 21 Ap...