Abstract
The creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1998 marked a substantial advance in the effort to ensure all perpetrators of mass atrocities can be brought to justice. Yet significant resistance to the anti-impunity norm, and the ICC as the implementing institution, has arisen in Africa. The ICC has primarily operated in Africa, and since it sought to indict the sitting Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2008 resistance from both individual African states and the African Union has increased substantially. We draw on the concept of 'norm antipreneurs', and the broader norm dynamics literature, to analyse how resistance has developed and manifested itself, as well as the potential effects of this resistance on the anti-impunity norm. We conclude that the antipreneur concept helped us structure and organise analysis of the case-suggesting it could be usefully deployed in other similar cases-but that this case also suggests that antipreneurs do not always enjoy substantial defensive advantages. We also conclude that African resistance to the ICC has substantially stalled the advance of the anti-impunity norm, a finding that has significant implications for the wider effort to reduce mass atrocity crimes in the contemporary era.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 101-127 |
| Number of pages | 27 |
| Journal | Review of International Studies |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2018 |
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African resistance to the International Criminal Court : Halting the advance of the anti-impunity norm. / Mills, Kurt; Bloomfield, Alan.
In: Review of International Studies, Vol. 44, No. 1, 01.01.2018, p. 101-127.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - African resistance to the International Criminal Court
T2 - Halting the advance of the anti-impunity norm
AU - Mills, Kurt
AU - Bloomfield, Alan
PY - 2018/1/1
Y1 - 2018/1/1
N2 - The creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1998 marked a substantial advance in the effort to ensure all perpetrators of mass atrocities can be brought to justice. Yet significant resistance to the anti-impunity norm, and the ICC as the implementing institution, has arisen in Africa. The ICC has primarily operated in Africa, and since it sought to indict the sitting Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2008 resistance from both individual African states and the African Union has increased substantially. We draw on the concept of 'norm antipreneurs', and the broader norm dynamics literature, to analyse how resistance has developed and manifested itself, as well as the potential effects of this resistance on the anti-impunity norm. We conclude that the antipreneur concept helped us structure and organise analysis of the case-suggesting it could be usefully deployed in other similar cases-but that this case also suggests that antipreneurs do not always enjoy substantial defensive advantages. We also conclude that African resistance to the ICC has substantially stalled the advance of the anti-impunity norm, a finding that has significant implications for the wider effort to reduce mass atrocity crimes in the contemporary era.
AB - The creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1998 marked a substantial advance in the effort to ensure all perpetrators of mass atrocities can be brought to justice. Yet significant resistance to the anti-impunity norm, and the ICC as the implementing institution, has arisen in Africa. The ICC has primarily operated in Africa, and since it sought to indict the sitting Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2008 resistance from both individual African states and the African Union has increased substantially. We draw on the concept of 'norm antipreneurs', and the broader norm dynamics literature, to analyse how resistance has developed and manifested itself, as well as the potential effects of this resistance on the anti-impunity norm. We conclude that the antipreneur concept helped us structure and organise analysis of the case-suggesting it could be usefully deployed in other similar cases-but that this case also suggests that antipreneurs do not always enjoy substantial defensive advantages. We also conclude that African resistance to the ICC has substantially stalled the advance of the anti-impunity norm, a finding that has significant implications for the wider effort to reduce mass atrocity crimes in the contemporary era.
KW - African Union
KW - Anti-Impunity
KW - Global Norm Dynamics
KW - International Criminal Court
KW - International Criminal Justice
KW - Norm Antipreneurs
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85038617778&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0260210517000407
DO - 10.1017/S0260210517000407
M3 - Article
VL - 44
SP - 101
EP - 127
JO - Review of International Studies
JF - Review of International Studies
SN - 0260-2105
IS - 1
ER -