International Criminal Court and African union: the way forward to end impunity for international crimes in Africa

Abstract

The primary objectives of the research are to examine the accusation of the African Union (AU) that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been targeting and prosecuting the African leaders only and to investigate the extents and challenges facing the AU's future prospect to investigate or prosecute the perpetrators of international crimes through its own proposed court known as African Court of Justice and Human Rights (ACtJHR) with international criminal law jurisdiction. The research aims at resolving and removing the misconception of the AU and to move forward to end impunity for international crimes in Africa. Various research methods were used in conducting the research, such as legal doctrinal and non-doctrinal methods, empirical, and non-empirical methods, as well as analytical and comparative methods. After thoroughly investigating the AU's accusation against the ICC of targeting and prosecuting the African leaders, the research found that the crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC were mostly committed in Africa and African authorities were not able or willing to investigate or prosecute the perpetrators and thus encouraging impunity for the perpetrators. It is also found that most of the African situations were referred to the court is from the African states themselves, requesting the court to investigate or prosecute the perpetrators. Another finding is that there are many situations before the court from other regions around the globe, and under proceedings of the court, not only from African continent, such as situations involving Georgia, Colombia, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Iraq, Palestine, Philippines, Myanmar, and Ukraine. The AU's future prospect of the proposed court with international criminal law jurisdiction may not happen soon as even the Protocol that is going to create the court, and the Protocol to create an international criminal law section of the court with international crimes jurisdiction have not been ratified by the African states. The research has made several recommendations. It recommends to the African states to put a pressure on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to adopt a resolution to deal with serious situations, such as in Syria and Myanmar in order to make referrals to the ICC rather than criticising the court. African states are advised not to ratify international treaties unless and until they are fully familiar with their objectives and contents to avoid further confrontation and misconception. Furthermore, by virtue of the complementarity principle, the ICC is the court of last resort and the court encourages investigating or prosecuting the perpetrators by the domestic courts. Therefore, African states are required to investigate or prosecute the international crimes domestically, and are encouraged to ratify the Protocol creating the proposed court (ACtJHR) that will have international criminal law jurisdiction in order as the court to be operated soon to investigate or prosecute the international crimes regionally in Africa under the AU umbrella.