TY - GEN
T1 - The framing of the African Union in international criminal law : a racialized logic
AU - Edelbi, Souheir
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - The International Criminal Court (ICC) 'has been put in place only for African countries, only for poor countries...Every year that passes, I am proved right.... Rwanda cannot be part of colonialism, slavery and imperialism'. These words by Rwandan President and newly elected chairperson of the African Union (AU), Paul Kagame, have become widespread within the AU in response to the Court's overwhelming investigations and prosecutions of Africans. Yet, many of the ICC's proponents have dismissed neocolonial criticism of the Court, to some extent with good reason. It is difficult not to read Kagame's statement and similar statements by AU representatives as self-serving in the context of ongoing human rights abuses and violence perpetrated against civilians. But another way to read or 'misread' these statements is by looking at the relationship between the ICC as an institution of international criminal law (ICL) and the legacies of colonialism. In this vein, I want to highlight a growing pattern, within ICL discourses, of framing the AU as the antithesis of the ideals articulated in the ICC project. Broadly informed by Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), I want to call attention, in particular, to the racialized logic upon which this deeply structural framing device rests.
AB - The International Criminal Court (ICC) 'has been put in place only for African countries, only for poor countries...Every year that passes, I am proved right.... Rwanda cannot be part of colonialism, slavery and imperialism'. These words by Rwandan President and newly elected chairperson of the African Union (AU), Paul Kagame, have become widespread within the AU in response to the Court's overwhelming investigations and prosecutions of Africans. Yet, many of the ICC's proponents have dismissed neocolonial criticism of the Court, to some extent with good reason. It is difficult not to read Kagame's statement and similar statements by AU representatives as self-serving in the context of ongoing human rights abuses and violence perpetrated against civilians. But another way to read or 'misread' these statements is by looking at the relationship between the ICC as an institution of international criminal law (ICL) and the legacies of colonialism. In this vein, I want to highlight a growing pattern, within ICL discourses, of framing the AU as the antithesis of the ideals articulated in the ICC project. Broadly informed by Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), I want to call attention, in particular, to the racialized logic upon which this deeply structural framing device rests.
UR - https://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:60768
U2 - 10.17176/20180221-080730
DO - 10.17176/20180221-080730
M3 - Other contribution
T3 - February 20, 2018
ER -