The ICC and Africa

This chapter assesses Africa’s relationship to international justice via its fraught contestation of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The relationship between Africa and the ICC is a complex and complicated one. There is a tension between the strong desire of most African states and their people to bring justice to the victims of war crimes and the perceived bias against Africa arising from the fact that all but one of the eleven situations before the ICC relate to African states. The problem is exacerbated by the failure of the Security Council to refer to the ICC egregious cases of war crimes committed on other continents and particularly in Sri Lanka and Syria. The chapter then looks at the politics of the relationship between the ICC and Africa and how the optics have changed during the first fifteen years of the active life of the ICC. It also considers the future of the ICC in Africa and highlights the importance of positive complementarity.