Part I Context, Challenges, and Constraints, 4 The ICC and the AU

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maunganidze Ottilia Anna ◽  
du Plessis Anton
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
African Countries ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
State Immunity ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Head Of State ◽  
Political Background ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between the ICC and the AU has become a frequent bone of contention. The impact is naturally political, but it has also had an appreciable influence on ICC practice. This chapter analyses the legal and political background to the persistent disagreement, including the origin and foundation of divergent positions, such as, for instance, on head of state immunity and cooperation duties. It cautions against an oversimplification of ‘African’ views while also highlighting the progress made by some African countries in investigating, prosecuting, and adjudicating international crimes. It further examines the proposed expansion of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights’ jurisdiction to deal with serious crimes, including international crimes, and the implications thereof.

The Rise of the African Union Opposition to the International Criminal Court’s Investigations and Prosecutions of African Leaders

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 385-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manisuli Ssenyonjo
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal ◽  
African State ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
African Union ◽  
Double Standards ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
State Immunity ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Head Of State ◽  
International Court

On 9 January 2012 the African Union (AU) stated that it ‘shall oppose any ill-considered, self-serving decisions of the ICC [International Criminal Court] as well as any pretensions or double standards that become evident from the investigations, prosecutions and decisions by the ICC relating to situations in Africa’. These relate to the United Nations [UN] Security Council referrals (in Darfur/Sudan and Libya) and the Prosecutor’s investigations proprio motu (in Kenya). This article considers the rise of the AU opposition to the ICC investigations and prosecutions in Africa directed against current African State leaders focusing on three issues. First, whether customary international law creates an exception to Head of State immunity when international courts, such as the ICC, seek a Head of State’s arrest for the commission of international crimes. Second, whether the International Court of Justice can decide on immunity of State officials sought by the ICC. Third, whether the AU should empower the African Court of Justice and Human Rights with the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for international crimes committed in Africa.

Negotiating the Complex Interface between State Immunity and Human Rights: An Analysis of the International Court of Justice Decision in Germany v. Italy

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-436
Author(s):  
J. Craig Barker
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
State Immunity ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
Alternative Vision ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract One of the most controversial areas of contemporary international law is the interface between immunities and human rights. International immunities have been successfully challenged on human rights grounds in certain jurisdictions. However, to date, no international court tribunal has endorsed such challenges. In its judgment in Germany v. Italy the International Court of Justice re-asserted the conservative approach to the relationship between State immunity and human rights, which rejects the claim that State immunity is “trumped” by hierarchically superior human rights norms. This article examines the Court’s reasoning, before turning to consider the alternative vision of the interface between State immunity and human rights presented by Judge Cinçado Trindade. While persuasive, Trindade’s analysis must ultimately be rejected. The overtly positivist and formalistic approach of the Court, which is itself open to criticism, was, nevertheless, necessitated by the failure of States to provide for a human rights exception in the United Nations Convention on the Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property 2004, signifying a strong opinio juris against the further limitation of State immunity at the present time. Nevertheless, the Court carefully sought to limit the effects of its judgment by limiting its focus to the specific questions before it.

Ius Humanitatis and the Right to Reparation for International Crimes in Foreign Domestic Courts

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 358-376
Author(s):  
Marcel Brus
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Domestic Court ◽  
Core Element ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
State Immunity ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
Humanitarian Ethics ◽  
The Right

This article focuses on the possibilities for victims of international crimes to obtain reparation in a foreign domestic court. The chances of success for such claims are small under traditional international law. The article questions whether the development of human rights and humanitarian ethics as a core element of international law (referred to as ius humanitatis) is having an impact on traditional obstacles to making such claims. Two elements are considered: the relevance of changing societal attitudes to the ‘rights’ of victims of such crimes and their possible effect on the interpretation and application of existing law, and whether in present-day international law humanitarian concerns have led to limiting obstacles that are still based on sovereignty, notably regarding the universality principle, prescription, and state immunity. The general conclusion is that on all these points much remains to be done.

Assessing the Impact of Terrorism on African Tourism Demand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheereen Fauzel ◽  
Boopen Seetanah
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data Analysis ◽  
Dynamic Panel Data ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Tourism Demand ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Correction Model ◽  
Vector Error Correction ◽  
Vector Error ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Many African states are relying on or have identified tourism to accelerate their growth and the continent has become the world’s second fastest growing tourist industry. However, African states have also not been spared by increasing terrorism attacks during the past decades, probably hindering the growth of this sector to certain extent. This study examines the relationship between terrorism and tourism for a sample of selected African countries over the period 1995 to 2017. Given the dynamic nature of tourism demand and the possibility of endogenous relationships in the terrorism-tourism nexus, dynamic panel data analysis, namely a Panel vector error correction model (PVECM) is employed. The results confirm that terrorism negatively affects tourism demand in Africa and this can be explained by the reactive psychology of tourists to the various aggravated terrorist attacks in the countries. Moreover, the findings show that an increase in tourism may have resulted in an increase in terrorist attacks, hence confirming a bi directional causality between tourism and terrorism.

scholarly journals The European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 – Ten Years On

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-96
Author(s):  
Ronagh JA McQuigg
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
The State ◽  
European Convention ◽  
General Level ◽  
Human Rights Act ◽  
Human Rights Act 1998 ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

The European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 has now been in force in Ireland for ten years. This article analyses the Act itself and the impact which it has had on the Irish courts during the first decade of its operation. The use of the European Convention on Human Rights in the Irish courts prior to the enactment of the legislation is discussed, as are the reasons for the passing of the Act. The relationship between the Act and the Irish Constitution is examined, as is the jurisprudence of the Irish courts towards the interpretative obligation found in section 2(1), and the duty placed upon organs of the State by section 3(1). The article ends with a number of observations regarding the impact which the Act has had on the Irish courts at a more general level. Comparisons will be drawn with the uk’s Human Rights Act 1998 throughout the discussion.

scholarly journals STIGMA-STATISTIK: Når dagsordener sættes i dansk aids-politik

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Seeberg
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Hiv Testing ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Infected Person ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Aids Policy ◽  
The Impact

Jens Seeberg: Stigma Statistics: Agendas in the Making in Danish AIDS Policy This article explores a number of paradoxes and assumptions in the public debate on AIDS in Denmark. They form part of a recurrent attack on the Danish ‘soft line’ AIDS policy that maintains anonymity and voluntary HIV-testing. One central issue in recent years has been obligatory testing of asylum seekers from high risk areas as a precondition for considering the asylum request. Especially asylum seekers from African countries are pointed out as constituting a major threat to the native Danish population in terms of spread of HIV. This is shown to rest on a misreading of the official statistics, repeated as often as the statistics themselves. The assumption that there is a basic clash between the human rights of the HIV-infected person and the population in general is discussed. This conceived clash rests on the assumption that restrictions of the human rights of the HIV-infected person will provide efficient protection for the noninfected majority. The potential counterproductive effects of this line of thought are discussed. Contact tracing is sometimes considered as an effective preventive measure. Part of the critique of the present AIDS policy States that contact tracing is virtually non-existing and that this has a major negative impact on the preventive efforts. It is argued that while the impact of contact tracing in itself may be rather limited, the lack of contact tracing may be seen as a symptom of insufficient counselling. While obligatory HIV testing may never be practiced in Denmark, its recurrent appearance on the agenda serves to provoke a defensive stand among AIDS policy makers. It is argued that this debate has hitherto had the effect of keeping the needs of HIV-infected people - and especially HIV-infected immigrants — away from public debate and serious concern.

The Impact of Social Injustice on Public Health

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-20
Author(s):  
Barry S. Levy
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Injustice ◽  
Adverse Health Effects ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Adverse Health ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Social injustice creates conditions that adversely affect the health of individuals and communities. It denies individuals and groups equal opportunity to have their basic human needs met. It violates fundamental human rights. It represents a lack of fairness or equity. This chapter provides two broad definitions of social injustice. It gives examples of social injustice, both within the United States and internationally. It describes adverse health effects related to social injustice. And it outlines ways in which health professionals and others can work to minimize social injustice and its adverse health consequences. Text boxes describe concepts of social justice, as well as the relationship between science and social justice. The Appendix to the chapter contains the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

2 Crimes Against Humanity Under General International Law

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mettraux Guénaël
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Core Values ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses crimes against humanity under international law. Crimes against humanity were first introduced at Nuremberg as a means of criminalizing three sorts of criminality that so far had evaded the sanction of international law: atrocities committed outside the context of an armed conflict or independent of it; crimes committed against fellow nationals or nationals of allied nations; and institutionalized discriminatory violence that resulted in individuals being targeted and mistreated by a state because of their identity. Crimes against humanity seek to protect core attributes of all human beings: their dignity; their humanity; and their fundamental human rights. The notion of crimes against humanity reflects the fact that the protection of those interests and the punishment of serious violations of these interests is a matter of universal concern. It also makes it clear that the protection arising from international law does not depend on the nationality of the victim or his membership in a group, nor on his or relationship to the perpetrator. Instead, it is the sheer humanity of the victim that warrants and justifies the criminalization of such acts. And whilst the notion of genocide and crimes against humanity overlap in part in their efforts to protect these core values, unlike genocide, crimes against humanity seek to protect individuals as such, rather than groups of individuals. The chapter then looks at the relationship between crimes against humanity and other international crimes as well as the process of defining crimes against humanity.

The Impact of the Human Rights Accountability Movement on the International Law of Immunities

2003 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 151-193
Author(s):  
Darryl Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
Enforcement Action ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
International Court ◽  
Accountability Movement ◽  
International Discourse ◽  
The Impact

SummaryIn the last decade, the human rights accountability movement has made remarkable inroads into the classical law of immunities. The developments strike a new equilibrium between the need to promote accountability and the need to protect international discourse. These developments form a coherent picture if one looks to the underlying rationales of these areas of law. Immunities ratione materiae, enjoyed by current and former officials, protect official functions on behalf of a state. The landmark Pinochet decision affirmed that official functions could not include the commission of international crimes condemned by international law. Conversely, immunity ratione personae flows from a different rationale. This form of immunity protects only certain high officials representing their state and only during office and facilitates official visits by precluding arrest on any grounds. The International Court of Justice Yerodia decision and other developments confirm that this immunity remains absolute, irrespective of the conduct alleged. However, even this absolute immunity may be relinquished through Security Council enforcement action or acceptance of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

scholarly journals The human capital–economic growth nexus in SSA countries: what can strengthen the relationship?

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (9) ◽  
pp. 1143-1159
Author(s):  
Roseline Tapuwa Karambakuwa ◽  
Ronney Ncwadi ◽  
Andrew Phiri
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Least Squares ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Econometric Approach ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Ssa Countries

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the impact of human capital on economic growth for a selected sample of nine SSA countries between 1980 and 2014 using a panel econometric approach.Design/methodology/approachThe authors estimate a log-linearized endogenous using the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and the dynamic ordinary least squares (POLS) applied to our panel data time series.FindingsThe empirical analysis shows an insignificant effect of human capital on economic growth for our selected sample. These findings remain unchanged even after adding interactive terms to human capital, which are representatives of government spending as well as foreign direct investment. Nevertheless, the authors establish a positive and significant effect of the interactive term between urbanization and human capital on economic growth.Practical implicationsThe results emphasize the need for African policymakers to develop urbanized, “smart”, technologically driven cities within the SSA region as a platform toward strengthening the impact of human capital-economic growth relationship.Originality/valueThis study becomes the first in the literature to validate the human capital–urbanization–growth relationship for African countries.

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