Prosecuting International Crimes in Africa - PULP - University of ...

120 Chapter 5
The United Nations Security Council (Security Council) pursuant to
its Resolution 315 of August 2000 6 established the Special Court for Sierra
Leone (SCSL/ the Court) through an agreement with the government of
Sierra Leone. The SCSL was set up with the mandate to punish those
responsible for crimes committed during the war in Sierra Leone. Its
mandate is set out in the Statute of the SCSL. Crimes within the ambit of
the Court include crimes against humanity, violations of common article 3
to the Geneva Conventions and additional protocol II, other serious
violations of international law and certain crimes under national law. 7
There was a lot of scepticism surrounding the mandate and objectives
of the SCSL and there is a plethora of scholarly work on the effectiveness
or lack thereof of this Court. The SCSL was dismissed by some as yet
another charade of victor’s justice. The rationale behind the establishment
of the SCSL remains that those who bore the greatest responsibility for the
crimes committed during the war should not go unpunished.
That international crimes shall not go unpunished is beyond doubt.
International law requires that perpetrators of crimes against humanity,
war crimes and genocide are punished under international law. 8 In fact,
paragraph 4 of the Preamble to the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court (ICC) categorically states that grave crimes that threaten
international peace and security are of concern to the international
community as a whole and must not go unpunished. Much rhetoric about
ending impunity surrounds the creation of international criminal tribunals
aimed at meting out punishment for past atrocities. From Nuremberg to
Rome, to the creation of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
(ICTR) and the SCSL - all established with the sole aim of punishing
perpetrators of international crimes. Through these mechanisms, the
international community has witnessed the prosecution of persons accused
of committing some of the most heinous crimes against mankind. These
post- World War II trials have established many important principles.
They have defined crimes against humanity, slowly dismantled the
principle of sovereignty, rejected amnesties and immunity as a defence to
international criminal charges, and established notions of criminal
participation through the principle of command responsibility. 9
The growth in popularity of these institutions and their quest for
legitimacy have not been without challenges. For example, the SCSL has
had to convince ordinary Sierra Leoneans, through its outreach
programmes, of the importance of its work and, at the implementation
level, the rights of the accused and detained persons in the international
6
UNSC Res 1315 UN Doc S/Res /1315 (Aug. 14 2000).
7 Art 1 Statute of the SCSL.
8 J Dugard International law: A South African perspective (2005) 195.
9
WA Schabas ‘Sentencing by international tribunals: A human rights approach’ (1997) 7
Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law 461.