The use of Excessive Force in Riot Control: Law Enforcement and Crimes against Humanity under the Rome Statute

This thesis explores state-sanctioned violence used as part of law enforcement in riot control with a view to determine whether the definition of crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute effectively criminalises the use of force by state actors in riot control contexts. It analyses tensions arising from criminalising the use of lethal force against a ‘civilian population’ under the Rome Statute, while recognising the responsibility of states to enforce law and order through force, including through lethal force. The study is qualitative and uses doctrinal analysis to identify definitional gaps and paradoxes within relevant laws. It uses positivist theory and the Hobbesian concept of sovereignty to illuminate how the fusion of power, law and violence perpetuate circularity around the standards regulating state use of force in riot control situations, and how this in turn hinders specificity of culpability under article 7 of the ICC Statute. This study explores the effect of merging and applying without reflection, two prescriptive regimes; human rights and humanitarian law, within an international criminal law framework under the ICC Statute which is proscriptive and punitive. It also analyses definitional circularity under relevant national laws which are viable interpretive sources under the Rome Statute. The study concludes that article 7 is ineffective as a basis for criminalising excessive force in riot control contexts. The legal frameworks regulating use of force in these contexts, and those regulating crimes against humanity still operate in isolation and states retain a high level of discretion over the definition of national of standards of lawful force. The study argues that state parties never intended the application of crimes against humanity under the Statute to riot control contexts and that the internationalization of criminal liability for force used in internal riot situations is premature

Protecting the human rights of sexual minorities in contemporary Africa

This collection of essays, Protecting the human rights of sexual minorities in contemporary Africa, contains papers that were first presented at a colloquium on sexual minority rights in Africa, which took place at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, in December 2014. This event was made possible with the generous support of the Government of the Kingdom of Norway, through its Embassy in South Africa. These papers were subsequently peer-reviewed and reworked. Viewing homosexuality through a legal and rights-based prism, this volume brings together fourteen essays focusing on various aspects of homosexuality, covering a wide rage of countries from across the continent. The situation in nine countries (Botswana, Cameroon, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe) is reviewed; while other contributions are more regional in their perspective. This makes this publication one of the most comprehensive collections of African voices on this topic. For too long African voices have been silent on the fledgling discourse on sexual minorities. This volume seeks to amend this shortcoming. The editors and authors and contributors are not only African, but also, with a few exceptions, graduates of the Centre’s Master’s programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa. The publisher is an African-based publisher, the Pretoria University Law Press (PULP), based at the Centre for Human Rights

The Principle of Legality and the prosecution of international crimes in domestic courts: lessons from Uganda

Magister Legum - LLMSouth Afric