Is an African Regional Court a Viable Alternative to the International Criminal Court? A Neutral View

Abstract

The African Union Assembly of Head of States and Governments, in June 2014, adopted the Malabo Protocol empowering the African Court of Justice and Human Rights with international criminal jurisdiction. While this is a welcome development in the pursuit of criminal justice for human rights violations in Africa, it has however been overshadowed by academic indifference, mostly with regards to discrepancies that may arise in the jurisdictional relationship between the already existing International Criminal Court and the Proposed African Criminal Court. As such, while the coming into force of the African Criminal Court still awaits fruition, its possibility has garnered scholarly debates supporting and opposing the African Criminal Court having the mandate to prosecute international crimes. This chapter explores relevant provisions of the Malabo protocol, and the ideal of regionalizing the enforcement of international criminal law. Extrapolating from these, the chapter addresses from a neutral perspective whether the proposed African Regional Court is a feasible option within the existing framework of international criminal justice.