DISCLAIMER:

KAS’ African Group of Experts on International Criminal Justice comprises of individuals drawn from various parts of Sub-Saharan Africa working as scholars, researchers and/or practitioners in the field of international criminal law. The group meets annually to discuss pertinent matters related to international criminal justice from the African perspective, in addition to peer-reviewing their respective articles that are published annually under the title ‘International Criminal Justice in Africa’...

The story on Grace Mugabe's alleged assault on a young South African woman in Sandton, Johannesburg has been dominating news headlines over the past few days. After a few days of uncertainty, Grace Mugabe has returned to Zimbabwe having been granted diplomatic immunity by the South African government. The move is widely viewed as controversial and raises important questions about the limits of diplomatic immunity. 

Head over to The Conversation to read Prof Gerhard Kemp's views on the matter. The f...

For those interested, Queen Mary University of London’s Criminal Justice Centre in collaboration with the Centre of African Studies at SOAS, University of London are hosting a conference on 'Criminal Justice and Accountability in Africa: National and regional developments'.

Eminent speakers from across Africa, Asia and Europe will be tackling issues ranging from:

• How to understand criminal justice and transitional justice in an African context

• The challenges faced by hybrid and national cou...

Note: The text of this blog post has been drawn from a written submission to the third edition of the Strathmore Law Journal 2017.

In Greek mythology, Antaeus was the Libyan half-giant son of the Earth goddess, Gaea and Poseidon, the god of the sea.[1] Antaeus had the disturbing proclivity to challenge all strangers passing through his country to wrestle with him. It is quite telling that the Greek word underlying his name, Antaios, means to be set against, or to be hostile.[2] Antaeus’ occupation...

As reported last week, Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) II of the International Criminal Court (ICC) found that South Africa had failed to meet its obligation to arrest and surrender Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir (Al-Bashir) when he attended the African Union (AU) Summit in South Africa in June 2015. Al-Bashir is suspected of various crimes under the ICC's substantive jurisdiction, including genocide.

The decision was highly anticipated and the finding of non-compliance on the part of South Africa widely...

As widely expected, the ICC today found that South Africa had failed to comply with it's obligations under the Rome Statute through its failure to arrest and surrender Omar Al-Bashir in June 2015. However, a more surprising aspect of the decision is the fact that, in the Court's view, a referral to the Assembly of State Parties or the UN Security Council was not warranted in view of the specifics facts surrounding the case. In this regard, the Chamber reasoned broadly as follows [para. 139]: 

"In s...

It is reported that Zambia will not withdraw from the ICC. This comes of the back of a national consultative process concerning Zambia's withdrawal from the Court. It is particularly striking that 91,43% of petitioners were opposed to Zambia's withdrawal. This goes to show that - while there still seems to be support for mass withdrawal among various African states' political representatives (made evident through the AU's earlier non-binding recommendation to withdraw) - such support may...

See here for a good piece by Mayesha Alam over at Just Security on the situation concerning Saif al Islam Gaddafi in Libya.

This past week the African National Congress ("ANC") announced that it is still seeking to withdraw South Africa from membership of the ICC. The ongoing friction between South Africa and the ICC follows South Africa's failure to arrest President Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan when he attended the AU Summit in South Africa in June 2015. The ICC had issued an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir, who is implicated war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed in the Darfur region of Sudan, in 2010....

We are happy to announce that the group's latest publication can be downloaded for free on our 'Publications' page. 

Here is a short blurb about the book:

"International Criminal Justice in Africa contains a collection of papers by members of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung's African Group of Experts on International Criminal Justice. The members of the group are drawn from various parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and consist of academics and legal practitioners holding expertise in the field of internation...