"With the entry into force of the Rome Statute in July 2002 and the election of judges and prosecutors of the Court in 2003, there is need for states parties to the Rome Statute to enact laws to incorporate the crimes defined in the treaty. Currently, 92 states are parties to the treaty. The success of the ICC will depend not only on widespread ratification of the Rome Statute, but also on states parties' compliance with obligations under the treaty. For almost every state this will require some change in national law in accordance with existing laws and proceedings in a given legal system. The experience of most states parties to the treaty is that the Rome Statute will require some form of domestic implementing legislation, even if this is not the normal practice of the state. There is need for co-operation between the Court and state parties on the administration of justice. For the Court to function properly, the immunity of its personnel should be guaranteed and provisions in national constitutions that are incompatible with the Rome Statute should be amended to bring them in conformity with the provisions of the treaty. ... Thus far, South Africa is the only African country that has adopted an implementing legislation domesticating the Rome Statute. Other African countries such as Congo, DRC, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal have draft bills. There is, therefore, the need for African countries that are state parties to the treaty to positiviely confront the above challnges while incorporating the provisions of the Rome Statute into national law. ... The first chapter is an introduciton. It sketches the background of the study and reviews the materials that will be used for the study. It focuses on several hypothesis and research questions that the study is set out to answer. It highlights the dearth of materials on the implementation of the Rome Statute in Africa. The second chapter analyses the ICC and the emerging international legal system. It discusses the complementarity principle of the Rome Statute and analysis the crimes under the jurisdiction of the Court. The effect of the bilateral immunity agreements signed by states parties to the Rome Statute with the United States of America is also highlighted. The third chapter deals with the ICC and indernational approaches to the implementation of the Rome Statute. This involves discussions on compatibility of the Rome Statute with national constitutions. Approaches adopted by states with regards to specific issues of implementation will also come into focus, followed by discussions on the amendment of constitutions and purposive interpretation as adopted by various states parties to the Rome Statute. The fourth chapter will discuss implications of the Rome Statute for domestic constitutions in Africa. The discussion will focus on immunity from prosecution granted to heads of state and government by constitutions, the surrender of persons to the ICC and sentencing of persons convicted by the Court with regards to their relationship in the implementation of the Rome Statute in Africa. The fifth chapter will be a comparative analysis of impelementation strategies adopted by South Africa, Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). There will be an analysis of the relationship between the Rome Statute and African human right system. The last chapter is the conclusion with recommendations and arguments on the need for a comprehensive domestic implementation strategy of the Rome Statute in Africa." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2003. / Prepared under the supervision of Professor Lovell Fernandez at the Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

This study deals with two aspects of international law. The first is ‘immunity of state officials’ and the second is ‘prosecution of international crimes.’ Immunity is discussed in the context of international crimes. The study focuses on Africa because African state officials have become subjects of international criminal justice before international courts and various national courts both in Europe and Africa. It presents a new contribution to international criminal justice in Africa by examining the practice on prosecution of international crimes in eleven African states: South Africa; Kenya; Senegal; Ethiopia; Burundi; Rwanda; DRC; Congo; Niger; Burkina Faso and Uganda. The study concludes that immunity of state officials has been outlawed in these states thereby rendering state officials amenable to criminal prosecution for international crimes. The thesis argues that although immunity is founded under customary international law, it does not prevail over international law jus cogens on the prosecution of international crimes because such jus cogens trumps immunity. It is argued that, committing international crimes cannot qualify as acts performed in official capacity for the purpose of upholding immunity of state officials. In principle, customary international law outlaws functional immunity in respect of international crimes. Hence, in relation to international crimes, state officials cannot benefit from immunity from prosecution or subpoenas. Further, the study criticises the African Union’s opposition to the prosecutions before the International Criminal Court (ICC). It argues that however strong it may be, such opposition is unfounded in international law and is motivated by African solidarity to weaken the role of the ICC in Africa. It concludes that the decisions taken by the African Union not to cooperate with the ICC are geared towards breaching international obligations on cooperation with the ICC. The study calls upon African states to respect their obligations under the Rome Statute and customary international law. It recommends that African states should cooperate with the ICC in the investigations and prosecution of persons responsible for international crimes in Africa. At international level, the study reveals the conflicting jurisprudence of international courts on subpoenas against state officials. It argues that, state officials are not immune from being subpoenaed to testify or adduce evidence before international courts. It contends that issuing subpoenas to state officials ensures fairness and equality of arms in the prosecution of international crimes. It recommends that international courts should treat state officials equally regarding prosecution and subpoenas. It further recommends that African states should respect their obligations arising from the Rome Statute and that, immunity should not be used to develop a culture of impunity for international crimes committed in Africa. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

<p>This paper is about the reparations regime of the International Criminal Court and reparations possibilities for victims of sexual violence. It will contain a legal analysis of the reparations system of&nbsp / the Court, including the Trust Fund for Victims of the International Criminal Court. In a second step, the needs of women who experienced conflict related violence will be examined. The central&nbsp / &nbsp / question, which this paper will try to answer, is whether the ICC reparations regime has the ability to provide gender-sensitive reparations and thus make a contribution to the improvement of&nbsp / women&rsquo / s lives in post-conflict societies.</p>

<p>This paper is about the reparations regime of the International Criminal Court and reparations possibilities for victims of sexual violence. It will contain a legal analysis of the reparations system of&nbsp / the Court, including the Trust Fund for Victims of the International Criminal Court. In a second step, the needs of women who experienced conflict related violence will be examined. The central&nbsp / &nbsp / question, which this paper will try to answer, is whether the ICC reparations regime has the ability to provide gender-sensitive reparations and thus make a contribution to the improvement of&nbsp / women&rsquo / s lives in post-conflict societies.</p>

Magister Legum - LLM / This paper is about the reparations regime of the International Criminal Court and reparations possibilities for victims of sexual violence. It will contain a legal analysis of the reparations system of the Court, including the Trust Fund for Victims of the International Criminal Court. In a second step, the needs of women who experienced conflict related violence will be examined. The central question, which this paper will try to answer, is whether the ICC reparations regime has the ability to provide gender-sensitive reparations and thus make a contribution to the improvement of women’s lives in post-conflict societies. / South Africa

Doctor Legum - LLD / It is rare in law and in other disciplines for a word or a phrase to appear to mean what it does not. This is, however, true when it comes to life imprisonment or life sentence. I Unlike sentences like the death penalty, there have been instances where even those who are expected to know the meaning of the sentence of life imprisonment have misunderstood it.2 This misunderstanding is compounded by the fact that even dictionaries that have always helped us to understand the meaning of the words are of little help when it comes to the definition of life imprisonment. The Oxford Advanced Leamer's Dictionary, for example, defines life sentence to mean 'the punishment by which [some body] spends the rest of their life in prison." It goes ahead to define a 'lifer' as 'a person who has been sent to The ambiguity of life imprisonment could partly explain why the campaign prison for their whole life. The ambiguity of life imprisonment could partly explain why the campaign to abolish the death penalty and substitute it with life imprisonment has option to choose between the death penalty and life-imprisonment, many been successful in many parts of the world. When people are given the option to choose between the death penalty and life-imprisonment, many would oppose the former and favour the latter for various reasons. This is because, inter alia, many people think that an offender sentenced to life imprisonment will be detained for the rest of his natural life. This is of course not true in some cases, and, as Lord Mustil held, The two tribunals that were established after the World War III, the Nuremberg Tribunal and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, the Tokyo Tribunal, were empowered to impose the death penalty and indeed, as will be discussed later in detail, some offenders were sentenced to death." Although these tribunals were not expressly empowered to 2 sentence offenders to life imprisonment, they did sentence some of the offenders to life imprisonment. However, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) all have jurisdiction to sentence offenders to life imprisonment. At the time of writing, the ICC had not completed any case and therefore had no jurisprudence on life imprisonment." The ICTR has sentenced more offenders to life imprisonment and imprisonment for the remainder of their lives than the ICTY. This thesis reviews cases on life imprisonment in international criminal tribunals in order to examine the theories of punishment that these tribunals considered in sentencing offenders to life imprisonment. There are cases where the ICTR has sentenced offenders to imprisonment for the rest of their natural lives. From a human rights perspective the thesis argues that imprisonment for the remainder of the offender's natural life is inhuman punishment. The statutes of the ICTY, ICTR and ICC provide for circumstances where an offender sentenced by any of those tribunals could be released before the completion of his or her sentence. It is on that basis that it is argued that even offenders sentenced to 3 imprisonment for the remainder of their lives by the ICTR could be released.

"Although the United Nations (UN) has often been pivotal in forging the international response to serious human rights crimes in such settings, the justice gap in countries such as the Democratic Republic [of] Congo (DRC) (the focus of this study) underscores the need for more systematic UN efforts. The war in the DRC has resulted in one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis with over 3.4 million displaced persons scattered throughout the country. An estimated 3.5 million people have died as a result of the war. The armed conflict has been characterised by appalling widespread and systematic human rights violations, including mass killings, ethnic cleansing, rape and the destruction of property. The most pressing need to be addressed is the question of justice and accountability for these human rights atrocities in order to achieve a durable peace in the country and also in the Great Lakes region (Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Angola and the DRC, to name just a few). In this respect, this study will address the grave human rights violations committed in the DRC and the mechanisms for dealing with them. It is particularly true in post-conflict situations where justice systems have been either partially or completely destroyed, that national courts are not capapble of arriving at a uniform stance, or willing to provide justice for atrocities in the immediate future. As a result, international justice seems to be a crucial and last resort that must continue to be fortified against efforts to undermine it. ... Chapter one will set out the content of the research, identify the problem and outline the methodology. Chapter two will discuss the state obligations in international law to prosecute gross violations of human rights and gives a summary of the human rights violations situation during the Congolese war. Chapter three will discuss the available naitonal mechanisms for accountaiblity in the DRC. It will discuss if national courts and TRC are able to deal with these atrocities committed in the DRC. Chapter four will analyse the extent to which the ICC could deal with the Congolese case and challenges. Chapter five will discuss the trends towards accountability in the DRC and the way forward. Chapter six will draw a conclusion on how to break the cycle of impunity in the DRC." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2004. / Prepared under the supervision of Prof. Boukongou Jean Didier and Dr. Atangcho Akonumbo at the Catholic University of Central Africa, Yaounde, Cameroon / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

"The establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Rome in 1998 is a milestone for humanity and a watershed in the life of victims of ongoing violations or wars. The Preamble to the Rome Statute of the ICC acknowledges that 'during this century [20th century] millions of children, women and men have been victims of unimaginable atrocities that deeply shock the conscience of humanity'. This dissertation explores the development and state of victims' rights in international criminal law. ... The study consists of five chapters. Chapter one will provide the context in which the study is set. It oulines the basis and structure of the study. Chapter two endeavours to define some of the basic concepts central to the study: victim, witness, compensation, reparation, redress, restitution, etc. This chapter will give a brief overview of victims' rights in the domestic system. It will also analyse the right to an effective remedy in international law with specific focus on the UN human rights system and on regional systems. Chapter three will outline victims' rights before the ad hoc international criminal tribunals and hybrid courts. These tribunals and courts are the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Special Court of Sierra Leone (SCSL), Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECC), and the Special Pannels for Serious Crimes in East Timor (SPSC). Chapter four is devoted [to] the ICC. It will focus on its provisions dealing with victims' rights and assess whether this mechanism makes effective allowance for victims to be heard and compensated. Chapter five will consist of a summary of the entire presentation and the conclusions drawn from the study. It will make some recommendations for the adequate protection of victims' rights." -- Introduction. / Prepared under the supervision of Dr. Raymond Koen at the Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2006. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

This dissertation intends to analyse the practice of amnesties in the context of grave human rights violations using northern Uganda as a case study. It also examines its consistency with the obligation upon states to protect human rights through the prosecution of perpetrators of the said violations. It will, accordingly, analyse the implications of the complementary mandate of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to national jurisdictions. Furthermore, the author also explores the tension which results from national amnesties and the principle of international criminal responsibility, a principle that the ICC has the mandate to enforce. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2007. / A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Dr Ben Kiromba Twinomugisha of the Faculty of Law, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

In the perilous waters of the Mediterranean Sea, migrants find themselves facing limited choices when in distress. Their options are stark: either to rely on the lifesaving efforts of Non- Governmental Organisations (NGO) aid workers conducting Search and Rescue (SAR) Operations, to be intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard (LCG) and subsequently detained in Libya where their human rights are gravely violated, or to face the tragic fate of perishing at sea. Unfortunately, the criminalisation of SAR Operations, spearheaded by NGO aid workers, hinders the rescue of migrants, thereby exacerbating the risks they face and leaving them vulnerable to interception by the LCG. This interception, as argued in this thesis, inevitably leads to the perpetration of Crimes Against Humanity (CAH) against these vulnerable migrants. This thesis sheds light on the issue of Italy’s increasing criminalisation and vilification of humanitarian aid workers engaged in SAR missions in the Mediterranean Sea. It critically examines the consequences of such criminalisation on the lives and rights of migrants, exploring the complex dynamics between SAR Operations, interception by the LCG, and the commission of CAH. Drawing upon a comprehensive lens of interpretation that integrates legal analysis, human rights principles, and the international legal framework, this study concludes that criminalisation of SAR operations is indeed a contributing factor towards the CAH faced by migrants in Libya. Moreover, it identifies the potential liability of Italian State Officials (ISO) at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their role in enacting legislations that effectively criminalises SAR operations.