The International Criminal Court and the Nigerian Crisis

Abstract

Since its foundation in 1999 Boko Haram has carried out numerous acts of violence on the territory of Nigeria constituting gross violations of human rights. The Office of the Prosecutor (otp) of the International Criminal Court (icc) has been monitoring the violence between Boko Haram and Nigerian armed forces as part of a preliminary investigation. It has stated that the violence between Boko Haram and the armed forces has reached the level of a non-international armed conflict and that there is reason to believe that Boko Haram is responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. This article assesses certain types of behaviour of Boko Haram from an Islamic law perspective and examines whether Islamic law condemns or justifies such acts. Arguably, it would help the icc in asserting the legitimacy of its judgments, if it was able to prove that such judgments are compatible with the legal and belief system recognised by the actors at trial. In turn it would enable the Court to deal with at least some of the criticisms aimed at it for being an imperialistic institution.