The Egmont Institute has the pleasure to welcome Dr. Phil Clark, Reader in Comparative and International Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, for an Africa Lunch Meeting. Dr. Clark will reflect on the role of the International Criminal Court in Africa, drawing on his forthcoming book, Distant Justice: The Impact of the International Criminal Court on African Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2018), which is based on 20 months of fieldwork in Central Africa and The Hague since 2006. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is struggling at every level of its operations in Africa – in terms of its investigations, prosecutions, and relations with domestic governments, judiciaries and affected communities. This raises key questions about whether, after 15 years of consistent shortcomings and mounting frustration even among some of its most ardent supporters, the Court can survive. Dr. Clark will show how a core cause of the ICC’s travails is its remoteness from the societies in which it operates. The Court’s conceptual and practical ‘distance’ from the places where crimes are committed greatly undermines its effectiveness and requires a major rethink about how international criminal justice is conducted, especially in the Global South.

For enquiries please contact hdoe@egmontinstitute.be

(Photo credit: MINUSMA)