The crisis of International criminal law in Africa: An African perspective on international criminal law and (in)security governance

Abstract: Since coming into force the International Criminal Court, has been challenged with a series of issues. Criticism, especially, from African states has forwarded the underlying anxieties that riddles this relatively new institution of international criminal justice. More specifically, African states and the regional organ, the African Union, have denounced the Courts functioning on the continent - seeking to restructure a more egalitarian Rome Statute regime. The thesis answers three interrelated research questions 1) What are the complaints by African states against the International Criminal Court? 2) Does the AU Malabo Protocol (2014) and ICC Withdrawal Strategy (2017) signal a rooming disunion between the International Criminal Court and Africa? 3) What are the implications of the contentious provisions and structural shortcomings of the Rome Statute legal regime and institutional order on the becoming of the International Criminal Court? Employing a Third World Approaches to International Law and Postcolonial Ontological Security lens, the thesis makes the overall conclusion that the Other, AU, committed to standing in the face of the master Self, ICC, demanding a more egalitarian international criminal law system serves the Courts operation on the continent.