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Holding the powerful to account: War crimes and the new global reckoning

From Nuremberg to The Hague and Rwanda to Gaza, author traces the relentless pursuit of justice for humanity’s darkest crimes

Cosas 4: Naming the elephant in the room – the crime of apartheid

For South Africa, it carries profound emotional and legal weight. Beyond South Africa, this case sends an important message of accountability to the world and anyone dealing with…

Devastation: People search the rubble of the Bureij camp for refugees in Gaza destroyed by an Israeli attack. (Eyad Baba/AFP)

Urgent need to form a global bloc against genocide

Unified action led by states must follow South Africa’s stand against Israel to stop the killings in Gaza and Western-backed impunity

Hearings on the advisory proceedings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legal consequences of Israel’s practices in the Palestinian territories at The Hague, Netherlands on February 20, 2024. (Photo by Nikos Oikonomou/Anadolu via Getty Images)

A chance for Africa to counter the pitfalls of international criminal justice?

Time for a new treaty to deal with crimes against humanity? Here’s what you need to know

Futile: Palestinians live among the wreck and rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu/Getty Images

South African lawyers seek ‘blood money’ to compensate Gaza victims

They want the UK and US to pay for damages for their alleged role in assisting the Israeli military to commit war crimes and genocide

Alieu Kosiah. File photo

Liberian warlord awaits appeals verdict in war crimes trial

Alieu Kosiah maintains he is innocent and has requested a full acquittal

Frank Kennan Dutton.

Frank Dutton: A life lived for justice

He made a career of fighting war crimes and crimes against humanity and ended it as lead investigator for the Zondo commission

Zimbabwean Nationals wait outside Home Affairs in Pretoria for days for permits in 2021. (Madelene Cronjé)

What the Omicron variant and Mashaba’s election ticket have in common

Stigmatising the marginalised is driven by vested interests, both in the case of African foreign nationals subject to xenophobia and South Africans facing economic doom

Rwanda’s former army chief Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa looks on at a court in Johannesburg on July 10, 2012.  Ex-Rwandan army general is in court to testify in the trial of men charged with attempting to kill him outside his Johannesburg home in 2010. Nyamwasa told a South African court on June 21, 2012 that he was shot two years ago for defying President Paul Kagame, as he testified in the trial of six men.  “The reasons why I would think anyone would want me dead is that I have over the years defied the leadership, in particular President Kagame, on things that needed change,” Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa told a Johannesburg court. AFP PHOTO / STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN        (Photo credit should read STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/GettyImages)

South Africa: A safe haven for perpetrators of international crimes?

Examples from the past 10 years illustrate a growing trend to avoid or slow down extradition proceedings to other countries or transfers to international entities

TOPSHOT – People chant the name of Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko as they hold up a t-shirt with his name during the Labour Day Parade organized by the Central Organization of Trade Unions Kenya (COTU-K) at Uhuru Park in Nairobi on May 1, 2018. (Photo by Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP)        (Photo credit should read YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images)

The rise and fall of Mike Sonko — Nairobi’s Matatu King

Mike Sonko first rose to fame (and infamy) as a taxi overlord. He used his power to become the governor of Nairobi, before being outfoxed by the political elite

Wouter Basson  is most notorious in South Africa and across the world for his leadership role in the chemical and biological warfare programme of the apartheid system.

The recently renewed NPA should show its teeth

The body should overcome its reluctance to classify atrocities as crimes against humanity, as the cases of Joao Rodrigues and Wouter Basson demonstrate

Judges ordered the immediate release of the 73-year-old deposed strongman, the first head of state to stand trial at the troubled ICC, and his right-hand man Charles Ble Goude. (Peter Dejong/Pool via REUTERS)

ICC acquits former Ivory Coast strongman Gbagbo

Judges ordered the immediate release of the 73-year-old deposed strongman

Prosecutors have said that Gbagbo, the first former head of state to be handed over to the ICC, clung to power “by all means” in the world’s largest cocoa producer. (AFP)

War crimes court to rule on release of Côte d’Ivoire ex-president

Laurent Gbagbo has spent seven years behind bars on charges of crimes against humanity

Alfred Yekatom will face trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. (AFP)

CAR’s Colonel ‘Rambo’ to face war crimes charges in The Hague

A militia leader from the Central African Republic has been extradited to the International Criminal Court in The Hague

The Côte d’Ivoire was plunged into political violence in the aftermath of a bitterly contested presidential election that pitted Simone Gbagbo against Ouatarra, who eventually won out. (Luc Gnago/Reuters)

Ivorian leader announces amnesty for Simone Gbagbo and 800 others

Last week Côte d’Ivoire’s Supreme Court overturned an earlier acquittal granted to Simone Gbagbo for crimes against humanity

Habré trial a victory for hearing crimes against humanity in Africa

The trial of the Chad dictator in Senegal shows that war and other similar crimes need not be heard in The Hague.

Former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre.

Trial of Chad’s Habre suspended after boycott by his lawyers

The trial of Hissene Habre was suspended on Tuesday until September after the court named new lawyers because his defence team shunned the session.

President Cyril Ramaphosa will outline his plan to fight corruption in his State of the Nation Address on Friday

Chad’s torture victims seek justice in trial of Hissene Habre

Hissene Habre faces charges of torture and crimes against humanity in the first trial of an African leader outside his nation by a continental court.

Alfred Yekatom will face trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. (AFP)

[Archives] The ICC is a bully, and other popular myths

Politicians defend Omar al-Bashir fleeing an ICC arrest warrant, saying the court is a bully and targets Africa. Karen Williams disagrees.

Plight of civilians caught up in Boko Haram fight flagged

Many of the nations fighting the terror group have themselves been accused of human rights abuses and even of war crimes.