Feature: Africa and the International Criminal Court
Africa and the International Criminal Court
Among some African commentators - official, professional, and self-appointed - there is often what amounts to a form of paranoia about the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Such attitudes result from a lack of information and gross prejudice. On 17July 2011, the president of the International Criminal Court, Judge Sang-Hyun Song of Korea, issued a statement to celebrate the Day of International Criminal Justice. He called for the people of the world to "remain united in our resolve to defeat impunity and the lawlessness, brutality and disdain for human dignity that it represents."
Internationally, the need for a criminal court was recognised after the Second World War, but the first such tribunals created had specific mandates only to prosecute those guilty of genocide in Rwanda and later in the former Yugoslavia. South African jurists played important roles in both tribunals.
