Posted inNews/Politics

Psychological scars have yet to heal for victims of Kenya’s election violence

By Sitawa Wafula Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta held a ceremony last weekend to celebrate the International Criminal Court (ICC) abandoning its case against his deputy William Ruto (and journalist Joshua Arap Sang) for orchestrating the violence after their disputed election of 2007. The prosecutor dropped similar charges against Kenyatta himself two years ago, alleging that […]

Posted inNews/Politics

Al-Bashir ruling: Will SA do the right thing?

By Angela Mudukuti There have been many significant developments in the world of international criminal justice recently. Last week the International Criminal Court confirmed charges against Ugandan Dominic Ongwen, recorded a guilty plea from Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi and convicted the former vice-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo. The International […]

Posted inBusinessEqualityMediaNews/Politics

Do we have a duty to arrest Omar al-Bashir and hand him to the ICC?

By Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh These will be some of the deliberations at the Supreme Court of Appeal hearing tomorrow in the state’s appeal of the June 2015 high court order to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Will this court arrive at a different conclusion in respect of the arrest of al-Bashir? The state certainly hopes so. […]

Posted inEqualityGeneralNews/Politics

The state of play in the al-Bashir saga

By Angela Mudukuti On September 16, the North Gauteng High Court denied the South African government leave to appeal in the case pertaining to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes. After a United Nations (UN) Security Council referral of the […]

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Con Air: African Escape

We open on SA President Jacob Zuma seeing off Sudan President Omar al-Bashir at Air Force Base Waterkloof. They kiss, but in a friendly way. Al Bashir lifts his robe, boards a plane and takes off. Murder accused Christopher Panayiotou and Zwelethu Mthethwa run onto the tarmac. PANAYIOTOU: What about us? ZUMA: No, not you. […]

Posted inNews/Politics

Time to rethink justice in Africa

I recently attended a public lecture by acclaimed author, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, titled The Language of Justice in Africa. The lecture was on how the English language has assumed its powerful status in Anglophone Africa and how the justice systems in these countries, premised on English codes, may actually be miscarrying justice by virtue of […]