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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...

This article was originally published on Justiceinfo.net

A year after the overthrow of Omar Al-Bashir, demands for justice remain strong in Sudan. But government initiatives and activists’ hopes are coming up against political realities of the military and civilian coalition leading the transition. The fate of former dictator Bashir, indicted by the International Criminal Court, should be understood in this context.

In September 2019, a Sudanese protestor holds up a placard calling for "Butcher Bash...

This article was originally posted on Justiceinfo.net.

Two prisoners made famous by the International Criminal Court have both been freed from Makala prison in Kinshasa in the hope of bringing peace to one of the country’s most unstable regions -- Ituri, where the two men were once warlords and enemies.

For the Congolese government, it seems this was the price to pay to restore peace in the eastern Ituri region. Overnight, Kinshasa released the first two ex-warlords to be convicted by the Internatio...

An English translation of this article has been added at the end.

1.         La situation en Libye avait été déférée à la CPI par le Conseil de sécurité par sa résolution 1970 du 26 février 2011. Le 27 juin 2011, la Chambre préliminaire I avait délivré des mandats d’arrêt à l’encontre de Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, Abdullah Al-Senussi et Muammar Gaddafi. Les poursuites contre Muammar Gaddafi ont été clôturées à la suite de son décès( le 20...

Le 5 mars 2020, la Chambre d’appel de la Cour pénale internationale ( CPI) a décidé à l’unanimité d’autoriser le Procureur d’ouvrir une enquête pour des crimes présumés relevant de la compétence de la CPI en lien avec la situation en Afghanistan.

La Chambre d’appel a, dans son arrêt, amendé la décision « controversée » de la Chambre préliminaire II de la CPI du 12 avril 2019 qui avait rejeté la demande du Procureur et avait conclu que l’ouverture d’une enquête « ne servirait pas les intérêts de la...