1. No category

Concept Note
The African Leadership Centre (ALC) and the Council for the Development of Social Science
Research in Africa (CODESRIA), which is based in Dakar, Senegal will hold a one day Open
Forum in Nairobi on Victims in the Workings of International Criminal Justice in Africa:
Lessons for and from the Kenya. This meeting is part of the International Criminal Justice,
Reconciliation and Peace in Africa: The ICC and Beyond Programme which is a
programme CODESRIA has run together with the Social Science Research Council (SSRC).
The broad goal of the programme is to significantly improve the quality of scholarship,
debates and policy on international criminal justice, peace and reconciliation in Africa while
further democratizing the nature of conversations on the subject through conferences, the
conduct and dissemination of studies and policy engagement.
As debates over international criminal justice have raged it has not always been easy to keep
the focus of attention on the victims of gross human rights abuses, who litter the African
continent and whose numbers continue to increase with ongoing atrocities in places like South
Sudan and the Central African Republic. However, talk of ‘victims’ raises many questions
including the definition of the category of victims, the politics of naming in the positing of
victims, the extent to which local, domestic and international systems provide redress to
victims and the levels to which such redress is compatible with the long term interests of
reconciliation and peace. Two major questions worthy of continuing attention are:
1. What domestic, national and international systems and process exist for ensuring
redress for the victims of gross human rights abuses in Africa?
2. Which among these best ensure redress to victims while promoting the long term
interests of reconciliation and peace?
The Nairobi Open forum will seek to address these questions through a series of presentations
and an exhibition of the cartoons touching on international criminal justice and gross abuses
by the celebrated East African cartoonist Gado. The presentations, which will feature a strong
interaction of panellists and participants will allow the exploration of alternatives mechanisms
and the weighing of the benefits and costs of these systems with a view to capturing the
informed choices that can best enable African societies to balance the interests of victims, the
struggle against impunity and the search for long term social peace and reconciliation.
It will run from 8:30-17:30 on April 24, 2015 at the ALC.
A detailed program is attached.
International Criminal Justice, Reconciliation and Peace in Africa:
The ICC and Beyond
Open Forum
On
Victims at the Center:
Victim-sensitive approaches to redressing gross human rights abuses in
Africa
Venue: African Leadership Centre, Nairobi;
Date: April 24, 2015
Programme
8:30-9:00
Registration
9:00-9:30
Opening remarks
ALC (Godwin Murunga)
Brief remarks on logistics (Sylvanus Wekesa)
9:30-11:00
Victimization, victimhood, historical injustices and political evolution in
colonial and postcolonial Kenya
Chair: ( TBC)
Speaker: Muthoni Wanyeki, Davis Malombe and Mbugua Mureithi
11:30-11:15 Break
11:15-1:00
The situation of victims in national, regional, sub-regional and international
instruments and systems of practice for dealing with gross human rights abuses
Chair: (TBC)
Speakers: Shuvai Nyoni, Dennis Jjuuko (20 mins)
1:00-2:00
Lunch
2:00-4:00
The media and victims of gross human rights abuses: Artistic and creative
engagements with the question of the victims of gross human rights abuses
Three parallel sessions will have 30 minutes each to engage with three
cartoon installations by Gado on the issues of gross human rights
abuses and international criminal justice. Each group will make a 10
minute presentation to a plenary session followed by a response from
Gado and a Q&A session with the cartoonist
Chair: ( TBC)
4:00-5:00
Closing Remarks
CODESRIA (Ato Onoma)