In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: Angela Mudukuti

21 Jan

On 19 January 2022, the legendary investigator and justice warrior Frank Kennan Dutton passed away at the age of 72. I was introduced to Frank  by Howard Varney while we were all working on seeking justice for anti-apartheid activist Nokuthula Simelane who was tortured and murdered by apartheid era police. Naturally, Frank’s reputation preceded him and I had heard awe-inspiring things about him but I...

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19 Jan

Every nine-years a new prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is selected. The 2021/2020 ICC prosecutorial elections saw the appointment of the ICC’s third prosecutor and an unprecedented discussion about the high moral character requirement. Common sense and article 42(3) of the Rome Statute require the prosecutor and deputies to be persons of high moral character, yet this election cycle...

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07 Oct

[Angela Mudukuti is a member of Opinio Juris and a human rights lawyer who specialises in international criminal law. She has worked with a variety of international institutions and organsisations including the International Criminal Court and Human Rights Watch.] Yes, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has a “Boys Club” problem. Whilst the ICC is but one part of the international criminal justice landscape, the severe and unsustainable gender...

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18 Dec

Justice as Message is 436-page is a detailed exploration of justice as a message, including the various forms, messaging can take. Of particular interest to me was chapter 6, “International criminal law as expressivist justice-meanings, implications and critiques.” Stahn opens this chapter by stating that “expressivist practices have a larger space in international criminal justice than traditionally assumed.” Whether we like it or not, in the business of...

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25 May

2020 has been dominated by Covid-19 related doom and gloom, however there are other notable positive developments worth acknowledging including the criminalisation of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Sudan in April 2020. FGM is an internationally recognised human rights violation and is defined by UNICEF as  “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury...

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13 Jan

Apple, Google (through its parent company Alphabet, Inc), Dell, Microsoft and Tesla have been named as defendants in what could be a landmark case pertaining to the use of child labour in the mining of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The case, which is a  class complaint for injunctive relief and damages has been brought by the US based International Rights Advocates (IRA) on behalf...

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24 Nov

The judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) continue to attract attention, sometimes for all the wrong reasons. Their suit before the International Labour Organisation for a salary increase as reported by the New York Times, and questionable legal judgements such as Pre-Trial Chamber II’s decision to deny the Prosecutor’s request to open a much needed, and clearly warranted investigation...

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20 Nov

An investigation by BBC Panorama and the Sunday Times has revealed what 11 detectives have called “credible evidence” of war crimes committed by British soldiers in Iraq. This will not come as news to those who are aware of the European Centre for Constitutional Human Rights (ECCHR)’s file that was submitted to the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) at the...

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23 Oct

"It is of utmost importance to the victims' families, as a matter of record, history, justice, and closure that the full truth be revealed and discovered." ---Mohamed Chande Othman On Monday the 7th of October the UN published its report, compiled by former Chief Justice of Tanzania, Mohamed Chande Othman, on the investigation into the mysterious circumstances resulting in tragic...

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25 Sep

I sat down with Stephen Rapp, (formerly Chief of Prosecutions at the ICTR, Prosecutor at the SCSL, and US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice; now a Fellow at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for Prevention of Genocide and Oxford University’s Blavatnik School) to talk about some of the burning issues in international criminal justice today.  There are very clear challenges...

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09 Sep

On 4 September last week the UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi released its latest report. The situation in Burundi continues to warrant deep concern as grave human rights violations persist. Experts estimate that it may only get worse as the 2020 elections draw closer. After all, it was a political crisis in 2015 election cycle that catapulted the small...

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