Africa: International Criminal Justice Needs More Than Solidarity to Survive

What the report says

AllAfrica carried an Institute for Security Studies analysis by Ottilia Anna Maunganidze arguing that the International Criminal Court faces a deepening political and operational crisis, and that expressions of support are no longer enough to protect international criminal justice. The article links the debate to International Justice Day, observed on 17 July, and recalls the 1998 adoption of the Rome Statute that created the ICC after atrocities in places including Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

According to the ISS analysis, current pressure on the court includes a United States campaign announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on 13 July, threats aimed at limiting the ICC’s operations, and withdrawal notices from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The piece also cites sanctions and criticism connected to ICC actions involving Israeli leaders, as well as long-running African objections that the court has disproportionately focused on the continent.

Maunganidze argues that defending accountability requires states to do more domestically and collectively, because the ICC was designed to intervene only when national systems cannot or will not act. The analysis points to wider tools, including universal jurisdiction, domestic laws criminalising war crimes and genocide, and emerging international instruments intended to improve cooperation on crimes against humanity and other grave offences.

The article highlights African examples it presents as signs of continued accountability efforts: the Central African Republic’s hybrid Special Criminal Court trial involving former president François Bozizé and co-accused, the DRC’s advisory council of war crimes lawyers, South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, and a Kenyan prosecutorial review concerning alleged crimes by members of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces. The central takeaway is that international justice depends on sustained political, legal and financial action beyond the ICC itself.