The Faculty of Law (UP Law) at the University of Pretoria (UP) congratulates Professor Zozo Dyani-Mhango, Head of the Department of Public Law, on the publication of a book released in early February, consisting of 17 chapters, titled ‘National Accountability for International Crimes in Africa’.

The book, co-edited by Rhodes University’s Professor Emma Lubaale, an LLM and LLD (Public Law) alumna from UP Law, was written by various authors from across the Africa region.  All chapters of the book were double peer-reviewed, adds an Africa voice to international criminal justice and will attract subsidy from the South African Department of Higher Education and Training.

According to Dyani-Mhango, they were also in the fortunate position to have the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tawana Kupe, writing the Foreword. The foreword is available to download for free in the link about the book (if you click Front matter - it starts from page v):  https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-88044-6.’

The book provides a critical examination of the issues pertaining to the Rome Statute’s complementarity principle. At the centre of it is the primacy of Africa states to prosecute alleged perpetrators of international crimes in their respective jurisdictions. The contributions in this edited volume interrogate states’ international and domestic obligations to hold perpetrators of international crimes to account before the national courts.

The contributions demonstrate the complexity of enforcing national accountability of alleged perpetrators of international crimes, on one hand, while also ensuring that post-conflict African states achieve national healing, reconciliation, and long-lasting peace. The contributions reject impunity for international crimes whilst also considering these complexities. Politics of selective international criminal justice for crimes committed before the establishment of the International Criminal Court also take centre stage in this volume as contributions interrogate the meaning of accountability in this context.