Wednesday, November 21, 2012

New ISS Paper: 'African efforts to close the impunity gap'





The Institute for Security Studies have published a paper on 'African efforts to close the impunity gap: Lessons for complementarity from national and regional actions'. Max du Plessis is the lead author of the paper, which was launched last week in The Hague at the 11th Assembly of States Parties of the ICC. According to the authors: 


"The position taken by the African Union towards the ICC creates the impression that African states are resistant to international criminal justice. This paper demonstrates that the reality is quite different. Many African countries are committed to ending impunity: a majority have ratified the Rome Statute, four have referred situations to the ICC, and most comply with the Court’s requests for cooperation. The continent provides various examples of international justice in practice, either in the form of ICC complementarity or a wider array of justice processes driven by governments and civil society aimed at closing the impunity gap. The paper considers these developments and what they mean for our understanding of complementarity."




The paper is available here