Perspectives on the international criminal jurisdiction of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights pursuant to the Malabo Protocol (2014)

The Protocol on Amendments to the Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights (2014) (as it is formally known) ('Malabo Protocol (2014)') could be said to represent many things, depending on one's perspective. For some, it is a genuine attempt by African States to address international and transnational crimes that bedevil the African continent.1 For others, it is a cynical response to decisions of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that African leaders do not like, and the so-called 'abuse' of universal jurisdiction by Western states for crimes committed on the African continent.2 The aim of this chapter, however, is to simply offer objective perspectives on the provisions of the Malabo Protocol (2014) that add international criminal jurisdiction to the African Court of Justice and Human Rights (ACJHR), particularly those relating to genocide (Article 28B), war crimes (Article 28D), crimes against humanity (Article 28C) and aggression (Article 28M).