The International Criminal Court and the end of impunity in Kenya

Thesis

This thesis considers the extent to which the International Criminal Court's Office of the Prosecutor ('OTP') has been successful in realising its self-defined mandate of ending impunity in Kenya. In particular, it focuses on the OTP's attempts to encourage domestic investigations and prosecutions as part of its strategy of positive complementarity. This strategy has been hailed as being the best and perhaps the only way that the OTP may use its finite resources to make a significant contribution to ending impunity. Despite this, no empirical study has been published that evaluates the effectiveness of this strategy and the impact that it has on ending impunity in the targeted situation country. This thesis seeks to address this gap in the literature by conducting a case study on the OTP's implementation of its strategy of positive complementarity in Kenya following that country's post-election violence in 2007/08. In doing so, I also hope to make a modest contribution to existing debates over the effectiveness of the ICC as an institution as well as international criminal justice and transitional justice more generally.

Authors: Nichols, L

• Publication date: 2014
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-mzne5640n
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: crimes against humanity; transitional justice; prosecutions; International Criminal Law; impunity; accountability; Kenya; International Criminal Court
• Subjects: criminology and security,rights and justice; criminal law and human rights; economic and social history; civil rights; governance in Africa; history of Africa; criminal law and public international law; criminology and victims; Africa; conflict; human rights