Buscador avanzado

Issa Sallet Adoum and Mahamat Tahir, lying on the ground, weakened by a hunger strike during the judgement handed down against them in October 2022. In July 2023, the appeal chamber of the Special Criminal Court in the Central African Republic corrected and clarified their guilt and sentences. © Barbara Debout / AFP

On July 20, 2023, the Appeals Chamber of the Special Criminal Court (SCC) in the Central African Republic handed down its first judgment on the merits. The ruling went largely unnoticed. However, it offers a real double added value: controlling the work of the trial chamber, and guiding the judges in their future task.

The Appeals Chamber was called to rule on the SCC trial court judgment handed down on October 31, 2022. Issa Sallet Adoum, Yaouba Ousman and Mahamat Tahir had been found guilty of crimes against humanity for murder and other inhumane acts, and war crimes for murder and outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.…  Seguir leyendo »

"The fight against impunity will be the backbone of my second term," said Central African President Faustin-Archange Touadéra at his inauguration ceremony (photo) on 30 March in Bangui. © Camille Laffont / AFP

On March 30, Faustin-Archange Touadera was, again, sworn in as president of the Central African Republic (CAR), having won a second term after a difficult election fraught by insecurity and rising tensions fueled by rebel groups. In his inaugural speech, President Touadera promised to make ending impunity the “backbone” of his mandate. A few days before, he had also announced the organization, in the near future, of a “national dialogue”.

Terms such as “justice,” the “fight against impunity,” and “national dialogue,” however, are so frequently used in CAR that they risk turning off Central Africans who are still waiting for the concrete, transformative measures that the political transition had promised.…  Seguir leyendo »

The Special Criminal Court (SCC) Statute gives the court jurisdiction over gross human rights and humanitarian law violations according to Central African Republic’s (CAR) domestic criminal code and its international obligations, namely war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide which may have been committed in CAR since 1 January 2003.

The prospect of a trial and conviction, if an accused is found guilty, inevitably raises the question of reparations for the victims who will have civil party status. In fact, the SCC can award individual and/or collective reparations, including financial compensation, psychological support and agrarian or industrial funds. No trust fund mechanism is envisaged in the framework of the SCC to oversee the implementation of reparations awards.…  Seguir leyendo »

CAR’s Special Criminal Court (supplied by author)

The conundrum facing justice in the Central African Republic (CAR) was well summed up by Jean Pierre Waboe, Vice-president of the country’s Constitutional Court, whom I interviewed:

In a situation whereby the state does not exist, injustice becomes the norm. Anybody can set about doing anything.

The breakdown of state control since the resurgence of conflict in 2013 has had drastic consequences for the possibility of any forms of governance – political, economic or legal in CAR.

Under these circumstances, the need for “justice” has become more crucial. For Waboe, however, the problem of justice in the country is that it’s seen as too formal, too distant, too complex, and too slow to respond to what’s needed.…  Seguir leyendo »

«Ni punir, ni pardonner.» Par son efficace clarté, la formule de l’essayiste d’origine allemande Hannah Arendt frappe et souligne l’impasse dans laquelle nombre de sociétés se trouvent: que faire des auteurs de crimes si terribles que le châtiment ne serait jamais proportionnel au mal qu’ils ont commis? Que faire face à ce qui paraît de l’ordre de l’impardonnable?

Difficile de ne pas souscrire à l’affirmation d’Hannah Arendt, mais c’est pour se trouver aussitôt confronté à un choix binaire – punir ou pardonner – aussi bien moralement que politiquement insatisfaisant, choix auquel les sociétés en transition ne peuvent pas se soustraire. Que l’on soit un adepte de Machiavel et de la realpolitik ou, au contraire, un fervent défenseur des droits de l’homme, la brutalité des faits ne peut être évacuée: des crimes de masse ont été commis souvent par des milliers, voire des dizaines de milliers de personnes, et le châtiment pénal ne concernera qu’une infime minorité de leurs auteurs.…  Seguir leyendo »

I have had many unforgettable welcome receptions at airports around the world. But nothing could have prepared me for my arrival last week in Bangui, the capital city of the Central African Republic.

More than 70,000 people are crammed in horrendous conditions on the airport grounds. The lucky ones are living under weather-beaten tarps just yards from the runway. Others sleep in the open.

While they may have the protection of international troops, they are exposed to disease, malnutrition and untold horrors beyond the gates. Food is scarce. Malaria could spread. The rainy season will only multiply the problems.

Women and men shared horrific accounts of gang rapes, extortion and brutality.…  Seguir leyendo »

When Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire, the former UN force commander in Rwanda and now a Canadian senator, calls once again for urgent action to protect civilians at risk in an impoverished African country, one would expect the whole world to listen, particularly on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. You just could not divorce, he said, what is happening in the Central African Republic with what happened in Rwanda in 1994. "We've actually established a damn pecking order and the sub-Saharan black African – yes we're interested but it just doesn't count enough to spill our blood, to get embroiled in something complex that will need longer-term stability and influence," says Dallaire.…  Seguir leyendo »

No matter how often one interviews victims of human rights abuses, there are times when people’s images stay with you.

This month, in northern Central African Republic, I met an elderly Muslim herder who described in painful detail how a militia member slit the throat of each of his 11 children and grandchildren, ages 6 months to 25 years, before also killing his two wives. He struggled with tears while trying to spell the long list of names. He had lost everything.
On the steps of a church that has become the center of a squalid camp of more than 35,000 people seeking refuge from violence, a young woman was trying to nurse an infant who had been struck in the arm by a bullet that killed the woman’s husband.…  Seguir leyendo »

La salle d’audience du palais de justice de la ville de Bambari n’a ni portes ni fenêtres. Le siège du juge, les tables et les chaises ont tous disparu, pillés. Le sol est jonché de papiers - des restes d’archives et de registres publics. J’ai ramassé quelques feuillets éparpillés ; certains documents dataient de l’époque coloniale. Le système judiciaire de la République centrafricaine ressemble aujourd’hui à cette salle d’audience. En dehors de la capitale, Bangui, il n’y a ni police, ni procureurs, ni juges, mais les forces de la coalition Séléka, qui ont pris le contrôle du pays en mars (1), et qui sont présentes, partout.…  Seguir leyendo »