KiN Reports
The International Criminal Court (ICC), established in 2002, has to-date initiated many investigations in Sub-Saharan Africa. The ICC Prosecutor has opened cases against 16 individuals for alleged crimes in northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and the Darfur region of Sudan. In addition, the Prosecutor is investigating post-election violence in Kenya and analyzing situations a preliminary step toward initiating a full investigation in Guinea and several other African countries. Interest in the work of the ICC in Africa has arisen from concern over gross human rights violations on the African continent.
On March 4, 2009, ICC judges issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al- Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The case against Bashir represents the first attempt by the ICC to pursue a sitting head of state and has drawn praise from human rights advocates as a step toward ending impunity for serious human rights abuses in Africa. However, it has also raised concerns that ICC actions could endanger peace processes in Darfur and southern Sudan and post-conflict reconstruction in other parts of Africa (e.g. Sierra Leone and Liberia) as former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor, stand trial at the ICC through the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
The position of the ICC has also been interpreted by others as a new form of imperialism and that Africans should take care of their own justice system. For example, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda portrayed the ICC as a new form of "imperialism" that seeks to "undermine people from poor and African countries, and other powerless countries in terms of economic development and politics".
For this reason The Africa Center for Information and Development (ACID) in collaboration with the Norwegian Social Forum and as part of the Globalisation conference, is opening up the debate on the challenges and the dilemmas of the justice versus peace debate and how it impacts sustainable peace in Africa.
Speakers:
- Mrs. Fatou Bensouda, Deputy Prosecutor (Prosecutions), The International Criminal Court, The Hague
- Dr. Stephen Kabera Karanja, Senior Researcher, Norwegian Center for Human Rights, Oslo
- Mr Sam Akaki, Director of Democratic Institutions for Poverty Reduction in Africa (DIPRA), UK
Date: 20th November, 2010
Time: 10-12
Venue: Oslo Kongressenter Folkets Hus, Youngs gate 11
Send in your registrations to: acidcenter@acdicenter.no or call: 98063631/98092498
The Africa Center for Information and Development (ACID), Postboks 76, Romsås 0970 Oslo www.acidcenter.no
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