CIAO DATE: 12/2008
Volume: 1, Issue: 2
Spring 2005
Editorial (PDF)
Ending Impunity: The Case for War Crimes Trials in Liberia (PDF)
Chernor Jalloh, Alhagi Marong
This article argues that Liberia owes a duty under both international humanitarian and human rights law to investigate and prosecute the heinous crimes, including torture, rape and extra-judicial killings of innocent civilians, committed in that country by the warring parties in the course of fourteen years of brutal conflict. Assuming that Liberia owes a duty to punish the grave crimes committed on its territory, the article then evaluates the options for prosecution, starting with the possible use of Liberian courts. The authors argue that Liberian courts are unable, even if willing, to render credible justice that protects the due process rights of the accused given the collapse of legal institutions and the paucity of financial, human and material resources in post-conflict Liberia. The authors then examine the possibility of using international accountability mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court, an ad hoc international criminal tribunal as well as a hybrid court for Liberia. For various legal and political reasons, the authors conclude that all of these options are not viable. As an alternative, they suggest that because the Special Court for Sierra Leone has already started the accountability process for Liberia with the indictment of Charles Taylor in 2003, and given the close links between the Liberian and Sierra Leonean conflicts, the Special Court would be a more appropriate forum for international prosecutions of those who perpetrated gross humanitarian and human rights law violations in Liberia.
Mungabalemwa Koyame
This article examines the extent to which revenues from the trade in rough diamonds have funded civil war in African countries and the difficulties encountered by the United Nations in putting an end to it. As case studies, the article considers the conflicts in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone where the illicit trade in rough diamonds, also referred to as "conflict diamonds" or "blood diamonds," provided most of the funds used by rebel groups in their war efforts. The article further examines the role played by the diamond industry, the international community and diamond importing countries such as the United States and Belgium in the trade of conflict diamonds. The article concludes that several resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council concerning "conflict diamonds" were at times not successful because of indifference on the part of the international community.
L'Envers et L'Endroit de L'Interprétation Islamiste du Concept de Jihad en Droit Islamique (PDF)
Bruce Mabley
The concept of jihad plays a key role in Islamic Law at the same level as several other juridical notions. Although jihad has not been considered to form one of the official legal sources of Islamic Law (usul al-fiqh), it has taken on a modern conceptual interest. The history and evolution of jihad will be irrevocably altered by the existence of an epistemological break occurring in the early 9th century. The closing of the gate of ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) has a two fold impact on the changing juridical context as well as the geopolitical distribution of Islamist thinking in Africa and elsewhere. For Islamist scholars and political activists, jihad becomes a means, a testimony to Islam's pertinence and a desirable end. For example, the rising interest in the Islamic legal code (shari'a) and its political state aspirations is seen to be facilitated by calls for jihad. Lastly, three examples of modern jihad are considered and evaluated in light of Islamic legal precepts and of the controversy surrounding the closing of the gate of ijtihad.
Justice C. Nwobike
This article argues that the decision of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in the Ogoni case represents a giant stride towards the protection and promotion of economic, social and cultural rights of Africans. This is predicated on the African Commission's finding that the Nigerian Government's failure to protect the Ogoni people from the activities of oil companies operating in the Niger Delta is contrary to international human rights law and is in fact a step backwards since Nigeria had earlier adopted legislation to fulfill its obligation towards the progressive realization of these rights. The findings of the African Commission demonstrate that economic, social and cultural rights are not vague or incapable of judicial enforcement. They also illustrate how the Charter can be interpreted generously to ensure the effective enjoyment of rights. Novel and commendable as the decision is, it is not without its shortcomings. These shortcomings lie in the failure of the Commission to pronounce on the right to development, its silence on the desirability of holding transnational corporations accountable for human rights violations, and the institutional weakness of the Commission in enforcing its decisions.