Atrocity Watch Africa* is Birthed on Human Rights Day 10
December
Mass atrocities across
the world have been a blight to humanity. The continued loss of human life and
unfettered human suffering have shifted the discourse on the protection of
territorial boundaries to the responsibility to protect human beings.
Africa has been in the
vanguard of the development of positive tools for detecting and responding to
mass atrocities. There exists several continental instruments and mechanisms including,
the Protocols of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR)
which provide for the prevention, cessation and punishment of mass atrocity
crimes; the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) which provides
a methodology for dealing with serious and massive violations of human rights;
the founding document of the African Union (AU) which provides for intervention
in situations of “grave circumstances, namely war crimes, genocide and crimes
against humanity”, which has been done in places like Somalia, Mali and Sudan;
and early warning mechanisms within regional economic communities like ECOWAS
and IGAD.
Africa has also been
the centre of international justice with criminal trials against perpetrators
of mass crimes conducted with varied levels of successes and failures. Nonetheless,
the continent has contributed significantly to the development of international
criminal law, jurisprudence and practice, having been the site of a wide
variety of crimes tribunals. These have included:
- international ad hoc tribunals like the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR);
- continental ad hoc tribunals like the Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal to try the former President of Chad, Hissene Habre;
- hybrid tribunals like the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), and
- permanent tribunals like the International Criminal Court (ICC).
It is in this context that Atrocities Watch Africa (AW)
is birthed!
AW will be mining lessons
from the wealth of existing information, experiences and good practice to
provide a framework for the early detection and prevention of mass atrocities.
On this human rights
day, themed Human Rights 365 we recognise that the fight against violation
and oppression of human beings, is one that requires continued vigilance. We
can no longer wait for atrocities to happen without making every effort at prevention.
We must work to ensure that the post-apocalyptic cry of “never again” does not
remain unheeded.
*Atrocities Watch Africa is dedicated to fighting
impunity, curbing the commission of atrocities and ensuring that those who are
responsible are held to account for massive violations of human rights, while
engaging and interrogating the discourse and defining the future of human
rights in Africa. This is done through monitoring, documenting, research,
policy briefs, campaigns and advocacy before the United Nations (UN), Africa
Union (AU) and other African regional mechanisms such as the regional economic
communities. For more information please write to us at atrocities.watch@gmail.com.
