From the liberation struggle to "pure avarice": international criminal law and the framing of crime in sub-saharan africa

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dialnet-ar-18-ART00006089942017-11-17From the liberation struggle to "pure avarice": international criminal law and the framing of crime in sub-saharan africaWilson, Richard A.Human rightsCrimeRule of lawThe view advanced in this article is that over the past few decades, the efforts of Sub-Saharan Africa elites to promote human rights discourse and establish liberal institutions of the nation-state have constrained the space for justifiable law-breaking and enlarged the category of criminality. Taken together, national and international security are now pursued more through the idiom of crime and rule of law than through the political process. As a result, there is more crime than there used to be in sub-Saharan Africa. It means that law-breaking and collective political opposition is more often construed as criminal behavior. Not only have the classifications changed, but so have the ways of knowing about violence in Africa, and all the while, a legal prism for apprehending transgressions has gained greater prominence. This paper illustrates this general argument by reference to South Africa during its transition from apartheid in the 1990s and to the international criminal tribunals presently prosecuting violations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone. The argument works best for those post-conflict countries affected by liberal political and legal reforms and the interventions of international criminal law, and that now includes many sub-Saharan countries, but not all. It does not apply to relatively peaceful and prosperous countries such as Tanzania or Botswana. It does not work for Zimbabwe, but may once a post-Mugabe transition is underwayEditora Unoesc2012text (article)application/pdfhttps://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/oaiart?codigo=4548872(Revista) ISSN 1519-5899(Revista) ISSN 2179-7943Espaço Jurídico, ISSN 2179-7943, Vol. 13, Nº. 3, 2012, pags. 11-26engLICENCIA DE USO: Los documentos a texto completo incluidos en Dialnet son de acceso libre y propiedad de sus autores y/o editores. Por tanto, cualquier acto de reproducción, distribución, comunicación pública y/o transformación total o parcial requiere el consentimiento expreso y escrito de aquéllos. Cualquier enlace al texto completo de estos documentos deberá hacerse a través de la URL oficial de éstos en Dialnet. Más información: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/info/derechosOAI | INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS STATEMENT: Full text documents hosted by Dialnet are protected by copyright and/or related rights. This digital object is accessible without charge, but its use is subject to the licensing conditions set by its authors or editors. Unless expressly stated otherwise in the licensing conditions, you are free to linking, browsing, printing and making a copy for your own personal purposes. All other acts of reproduction and communication to the public are subject to the licensing conditions expressed by editors and authors and require consent from them. Any link to this document should be made using its official URL in Dialnet. More info: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/info/derechosOAI

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Espaço Jurídico, ISSN 2179-7943, Vol. 13, Nº. 3, 2012, pags. 11-26

English

Human rights
Crime
Rule of law

Human rights
Crime
Rule of law
Wilson, Richard A.
From the liberation struggle to "pure avarice": international criminal law and the framing of crime in sub-saharan africa

The view advanced in this article is that over the past few decades, the efforts of Sub-Saharan Africa elites to promote human rights discourse and establish liberal institutions of the nation-state have constrained the space for justifiable law-breaking and enlarged the category of criminality. Taken together, national and international security are now pursued more through the idiom of crime and rule of law than through the political process. As a result, there is more crime than there used to be in sub-Saharan Africa. It means that law-breaking and collective political opposition is more often construed as criminal behavior. Not only have the classifications changed, but so have the ways of knowing about violence in Africa, and all the while, a legal prism for apprehending transgressions has gained greater prominence. This paper illustrates this general argument by reference to South Africa during its transition from apartheid in the 1990s and to the international criminal tribunals presently prosecuting violations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone. The argument works best for those post-conflict countries affected by liberal political and legal reforms and the interventions of international criminal law, and that now includes many sub-Saharan countries, but not all. It does not apply to relatively peaceful and prosperous countries such as Tanzania or Botswana. It does not work for Zimbabwe, but may once a post-Mugabe transition is underway

Article

Wilson, Richard A.

Wilson, Richard A.

Wilson, Richard A.

From the liberation struggle to "pure avarice": international criminal law and the framing of crime in sub-saharan africa

From the liberation struggle to "pure avarice": international criminal law and the framing of crime in sub-saharan africa

From the liberation struggle to "pure avarice": international criminal law and the framing of crime in sub-saharan africa

From the liberation struggle to "pure avarice": international criminal law and the framing of crime in sub-saharan africa

From the liberation struggle to "pure avarice": international criminal law and the framing of crime in sub-saharan africa

from the liberation struggle to "pure avarice": international criminal law and the framing of crime in sub-saharan africa

Editora Unoesc

2012

https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/oaiart?codigo=4548872

1709712134562119680