The Challenges of International Indictments of African Leaders
This conference report summarises the presentations and discussion of the joint RUSI-CFPA conference on international indictments of heads of government
The RUSI and CFPA conference on the international indictments of heads of government drew on political and legal theory, as well as detailed case studies, to address the many questions posed by the issuing of an arrest warrant of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court on 4 March 2009.
A wealth of study and experience on the issue of international justice was applied to the Court itself and its recent decision. Many questions were raised in a day of passionate exchange of evidence and argument.
Central to the debate is the familiar 'justice vs. peace conundrum'. On the one hand, the needs of victims are clear - justice and some form of reparation are, if not sufficient for peace, necessary in a moral sense. There is also a more practical consideration - a failure to provide justice, while being a short-term expedient, can perpetuate a culture of political violence or leave simmering grievances unresolved. And it is difficult to accept that those who commit the most universally reviled crimes should enjoy effective impunity.