INTRODUCTION

On 27 June 2014, the African Union (AU) adopted the Protocol on Amendments to the Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights (Protocol) at the 23rd Annual Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. The Protocol will come into effect at such time as it receives 15 ratifications. The Protocol, among other things, expands the ratione materiae jurisdiction of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights (African Court), which is itself a merger of the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights and the African Court of Justice, so as to encompass international and transnational crimes. This move to create a regional African court for international crimes was triggered, in part, by negative perceptions in Africa concerning the International Criminal Court and its alleged selective exercise of jurisdiction over crimes on the African continent.

After first examining the disconnect between rhetoric and reality that exists regarding African perceptions of the ICC, this chapter will discuss the potential role that universal jurisdiction can play at the African Court with its expanded international criminal jurisdiction based on the principle of complementarity. Specifically, the chapter will consider exercises of universal jurisdiction that have occurred outside of Africa over international crimes committed by African nationals on African soil and the limited examples to date of African states exercising universal jurisdiction over such crimes. The chapter will then discuss the rich possibilities that exist for African states to exercise universal jurisdiction over atrocities committed in Africa, the key obstacles facing African authorities in this endeavour and ways in which these obstacles can be overcome. The chapter concludes that, while the Protocol has created a regional African court with jurisdiction over both international and transnational crimes, the primary responsibility still rests with African states to investigate and prosecute atrocities committed in Africa. The domestic exercise of universal jurisdiction is one way in which Africa as a continent can counter the alleged abuse of the principle of universal jurisdiction by European states over African crimes and take ownership over justice processes that aff ect them.