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promoting human rights and the rule of law in southern africa

welcome iconInt'l Criminal Justice

Our Work

International criminal justice and the fight against impunity concerns all countries. African countries make up the largest number of signatories to the Rome Statute and this is representative of the continent’s commitment to bringing perpetrators of the most egregious rights violations to justice. SALC monitors international justice and its development in southern Africa and on the continent. Its objective is to encourage African states, and particularly those in southern Africa, to comply with their international obligations through litigation and advocacy. 

 

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Latest News

Regional Conference: Closing the Impunity Gap

 

On 30 June and 1 July, 2011, SALC together with REDRESS and African Rights organized and hosted the conference, “Closing the Impunity Gap: Southern Africa’s Role in Ensuring Justice for the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda - Moving Beyond the Tribunal’s Completion Strategy and Residual Mechanism”. The conference served as an awareness-raising, capacity building and justice initiative aimed at ending safe havens in Southern Africa for suspects of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The event brought together Southern African and European justice officials, officials from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Minister of Justice and Deputy Chief Justice of Rwanda, civil society organizations, legal practitioners, leading academics and survivors. The event encouraged dialogue on how best to overcome the challenges to bring genocide suspects to justice. The meeting canvassed practical issues such as access to evidence, victim and witness protection, legal frameworks, challenges to extradition, international and regional cooperation and how Southern Africa could learn from efforts undertaken in Europe in relation to the investigation and prosecution of genocide suspects. 

SALC makes Submissions on the Implementation of the Geneva Conventions Bill

 

SALC together with the Professor Max Du Plessis and Christopher Gevers of the University of Kwazulu-Natal submitted comments on the the South African Implementation of the Geneva Conventions Bill. The Bill will incorporate the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols into South African law and will allow South Africa to ensure that breaches of the Conventions are prevented and punished.  The submissions focus on the ability of the Bill to ensure that the offences it domesticates into South African law are dealt with effectively and are motivated by a concern to ensure that the primary objective of the Bill – the prevention and punishment of Convention breaches – is realized.