NAVIGATING GLOBAL FRAGILITY: THE ICC AS A PILLAR OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Authors

  • Deo John Nangela University of Dar es Salaam

Abstract

Global peace and stability are increasingly becoming fragile amid internal state fissures, contested sovereignty, and weakened multilateralism. At the same time, the legitimacy and deterrent capacity of the International Criminal Court (ICC) are sharply contested, particularly in Africa. The African Union has criticized the ICC for selective justice, neocolonial bias, and structural power asymmetry. This paper examines these critiques alongside the Malabo Protocol, which seeks to Africanize international criminal justice but is constrained by immunity for sitting leaders and weak enforcement. Despite these tensions, the paper argues that the ICC retains essential normative value by stigmatizing atrocity crimes, affirming victims’ dignity, and sustaining global accountability norms.

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Author Biography

Deo John Nangela, University of Dar es Salaam

He is currently a sitting justice of the Court of Appeal of Tanzania. He may be contacted at nangela04@yahoo.co.uk

Eastern Africa Law Review

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Published

2026-05-01

Issue

Vol. 51 No. 2 (2024): Eastern Africa Law Review

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2026 Deo John Nangela

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish in The Eastern Africa Law Review retain the copyright to their work and grant the University of Dar es Salaam a non-exclusive license to publish, reproduce, and distribute the article.

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, adaptation, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.