African Ministers Criticize Foreign Indictments
Category: Human Security
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Last week African ministers of justice gathered at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa to protest European indictments of government officials. A draft resolution signed by African ministers states that “the abuse of the principle of universal jurisdiction by some non-African states is a great affront to sovereignty.”
The declaration follows on the heels of Spanish judge Fernando Merelles’ indictment of forty Rwanda Defense Forces officers. According to the judge, members of Rwanda’s political and military leaders abused human rights in Rwanda and Eastern Congo in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide. A similar case was raised by French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière in 2006, who accused President Paul Kagame and nine senior staff members of orchestrating the assassination of former Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana.
The doctrine of universal jurisdiction permits national courts to try cases of crimes against humanity even when they are perpetrated outside the country’s territory. The most prominent cases have involved government leaders such as Ariel Sharon, Augusto Pinochet, and Henry Kissinger.
Rwanda’s Minister of Justice, Tharcisse Karugarama, has requested that the African Union carry out a comprehensive legal study of the principle of universal jurisdiction and make recommendations based upon its findings. According to Karugarama, European judges “seek to exercise political power over independent sovereign states.” The concept of universal jurisdiction is “abused to serve their neo-colonial ambitions to control and dominate the targeted countries.”
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