Browsing by Author "Du Plessis, Maximillian."

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A critical appraisal of Africa's response to the world's first permanent International Criminal Court.
(2011) Du Plessis, Maximillian.
Abstract not available.
The ICC's jurisdictional limitations and the impunity for war crimes in the DRC : a plea for the establishment of a special criminal tribunal.
(2012) Ntamulenga, Christian Kabati.; Du Plessis, Maximillian.
The cruelty and scope of the widespread criminality of humans in the world, which was a feature of the past century, was fuelled by scientific progress, egoism and humanity's power of destruction. The criminal consequences of the many imperialistic, hegemonic and barbarous wars in that century were immeasurable in terms of violations of human rights. Notwithstanding the emergence of international criminal justice through the experience of the International Criminal Military Tribunal of Nuremberg and Tokyo and later the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, globally, impunity for egregious crimes continues. The establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the end of the 20th century was saluted as a major step forward in the evolution of international criminal justice. While previous tribunals were ad hoc, the ICC is permanent and has large territorial jurisdiction. This raises hope among the many Congolese victims of the first African World War, who view the ICC as a paradigm change that will put a stop to impunity for crimes against humanity and the crimes of genocide and war. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the past decades have been marked by instability and horrible armed conflicts (1996-97 and 1998-2003) which left several million people dead, and which were marked by gross war crimes. The negative consequences of those atrocities persist until today. While the ICC initiated the prosecution of some war criminals in 2004, most crimes committed before 2002 remain unpunished, because the ICC's jurisdiction is limited to after that time. It is therefore imperative to examine other mechanisms to deal with impunity for various grave crimes, including war crimes, perpetrated between 1996 and 2002. Thus the aim of this research is to contribute to the fight against impunity for crimes in the DRC by examining how other modes of jurisdiction such as the principle of universality can be applied, and to assess the need for the establishment of a specific tribunal for the DRC. Considering the inability and incapacity of the Congolese judicial apparatus, this study concludes by recommending the establishment of a Special Criminal Tribunal which can put an end to impunity for serious crimes committed in the DRC.
Seeking the best forum to prosecute gender-based violence in armed conflict situations in Africa.
(2018) Ashiru, Margaret Olatokunbo.; Du Plessis, Maximillian.; Bosch, Shannon Joy.
Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) has been a common feature of war, in armed conflict situations. This is particularly so on the African continent where sexual and gender-based crimes (SGBCs) are prevalent. Previously thought of as an unavoidable feature of war, it is now realised that SGBV is used as a weapon of war by perpetrators of these crimes. For years, SGBCs were marginalised and overlooked as they were not prosecuted as crimes in their own right. It was through the work of many feminists’ striving to have these crimes recognised and prosecuted in their own right, that these crimes were included as crimes in their own right in statues such as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Rome Statute. Though SGBCs were included as crimes in their own right in the Rome Statute, this did not necessarily mean that these crimes were tried and when tried, there is no assurance that they would be successful prosecuted. As a result, it is necessary that SGBCs committed during armed conflicts are prosecuted at the international, regional and domestic levels so that the impunity gap for these crimes is closed. This thesis therefore considers the prosecution of SGBV committed during armed conflicts in Africa at the International Criminal Court (ICC), regional (proposed African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights) and domestic level (using the Democratic Republic of Congo as the case study). This is with a view to assessing whether these three forms of justice will bridge the impunity gap in bringing prosecutors to account and/or complement each other. The end result of this is to deter the occurrence of the above mentioned crime in Africa.