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| Title: | An International War Crimes Tribunal for Africa: Problems and Prospects |
| Author: | Olonisakin, Funmi |
| Year: | 1997 |
| Periodical: | African Journal of International and Comparative Law |
| Volume: | 9 |
| Issue: | 4 |
| Period: | December |
| Pages: | 822-835 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Africa |
| Subjects: | international criminal law offences against human rights international relations Law, Human Rights and Violence |
| External link: | https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/afjincol9&i=838 |
| Abstract: | The wars in Rwanda and Liberia are an indication of how uncurtailed atrocities result in great disaster. This article discusses the need for the control of African armed conflicts through the enforcement of the laws of war, and examines in particular the prospect for war crimes tribunals in Africa, in the light of earlier efforts - Nuremberg, the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda. The case of the Rwanda Tribunal shows that attempts to replicate earlier models of war crimes tribunals in Africa depend on how a number of both legal and political questions are resolved. Controversy surrounds the question of who possesses the legal authority to try crimes of war, the State or the international community. However, this legal debate is rendered almost irrelevant in the case of Africa by the fact that in many of the civil wars raging in Africa there have been no recognized central authorities. Thus the problems confronting efforts to establish war crimes tribunals are largely political, associated with who tries war criminals, where, and when they are tried. However, in the current international political climate, with its general lack of interest in African security matters, it is unlikely that Africa will witness any enforcement of the laws of war beyond the stagnant effort in Rwanda. Notes, ref. |