Justice and Peace

Friday, April 16th, 2010

International Criminal Justice and Non-Western Cultures

posted by Tim Kelsall

As the ICC Review Conference nears, it is time to consider how best to create a form of international criminal justice that is culturally and socially appropriate in non-Western settings.

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Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Peace, Justice, and the International Criminal Court

posted by Sara Darehshori

The long-running debate about whether seeking justice for grave international crimes interferes with prospects for peace has intensified as the possibility of national leaders being brought to trial for human rights violations becomes more likely. The International Criminal Court (ICC), which is mandated to investigate and prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, began operations in 2003 and has already issued its first arrest warrant for a sitting head of state—Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir.

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Friday, September 18th, 2009

Misconceptions II – Domestic Prosecutions and the International Criminal Court

posted by Lydiah Kemunto Bosire

This is the second of three essays on misconceptions in debates over transitional justice in Kenya. The first essay considered complementarity and the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC), and argued that, if Kenya’s situation was otherwise admissible to the International Criminal Court (ICC), the TJRC in its current form is unlikely to satisfy the Court’s complementarity test. This essay considers the discussion on domestic prosecutions in Kenya.

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Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Leashing Kenya’s Dogs of War: A Theoretical Assessment

posted by Korir Sing Oei

From the standpoint of constitutional law, the handing over of the Waki envelope to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) represents the ceding of judicial autonomy of the state to an ‘exceptional court’. The establishment of a domestic special tribunal which supplants the supervisory jurisdiction of the High Court and strips the president and attorney general of constitutional powers and immunities has a similar effect.

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Friday, August 21st, 2009

Misconceptions I – The ICC and the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC)

posted by Lydiah Kemunto Bosire

The Kenyan Cabinet recently resolved to put forward the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) as a way to address the post-election violence. In this first of three essays looking at some of the misconceptions in the transitional justice debate in Kenya (the next two contributions will consider domestic and international prosecutions respectively), I evaluate whether the establishment of the TJRC makes the Kenyan situation inadmissible before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Read the rest of Misconceptions I – The ICC and the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC).