The June 2010 review conference of the International
Criminal Court (ICC) in Kampala marks the end of the
ICC’s beginning and a critical time to evaluate the
history and future of international justice in Africa.
Since the ICC Prosecutor’s request to indict Sudanese
President Omar al-Bashir in July 2008, Oxford
Transitional Justice Research (OTJR) has hosted four
series of online essays and interviews, exploring
various issues concerning Africa’s encounters with
international justice.1 This collection assembles nearly
60 of those essays – arranged thematically rather
than chronologically – to show the breadth and depth
of the debates generated by the ICC and other
international justice institutions in Africa, including
the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and
the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
Drawing together academic and practitioner
contributors from Africa and beyond, this collection
highlights the challenges that international justice
has faced in addressing atrocities in Africa. The ICC
and other institutions have confronted numerous
obstacles, including delivering justice in the midst of
destabilising national elections and ongoing conflict;
these institutions’ reliance on cooperation with
domestic governments which are themselves
frequently responsible for crimes against civilians; and
Africa’s long history of colonisation and often fraught
engagement with external actors. The purpose of this
collection is to explore these issues in order to
encourage grounded, nuanced and critical debates at
the ICC review conference and thereafter
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