Regional courts must help countries struggling to cope with overwhelming number of legal cases

With the International Criminal Court (ICC) potentially facing an overwhelming number of cases because national justice systems in many countries are too weak, regional courts must shoulder more responsibility for prosecuting crimes, according to Justice Hassan Jallow, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

In so doing, regional courts – such as the East African Court of Justice – should be utilised more which in turn would allow the ICC to concentrate on what it was set up to do: prosecuting the most senior perpetrators of crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and the Crime of Aggression. By developing regional courts for this type of work it will also ease the strain on countries whose judicial systems are not strong enough to handle more complex criminal prosecutions comprising an international dimension.

“The statutes of regional courts need to be amended by their member countries so they are given the jurisdiction to prosecute these criminal cases,” said Justice Hassan Jallow.

By taking some of the workload from countries, he believes they will then be able to spend time on strengthening their own systems through the help of development organisations like the Commonwealth Secretariat.

“Because of its values, the Commonwealth Secretariat is uniquely placed to help countries build their capacities by providing training in areas such as drafting of legislation and the strengthening of witness protection programmes,” he said.

Then, when these countries are stronger, they will be able to take on more and more cases, leaving the ICC – which does not have jurisdiction to prosecute crimes where a country is willing and able to undertake prosecutions – to act as a ‘court of last resort’ in order to complement the work of national jurisdictions.

Justice Jallow was speaking at the Commonwealth Secretariat’s headquarters in London on 25 June, where he met senior officers from the legal, human rights and political teams.

During his speech, the Chief Prosecutor also spoke about his work in Rwanda and the developments of the International Criminal Tribunal, which has indicted 93 people, all of whom have been arrested except 11, who remain on the run.

The Tribunal is aiming to finish its trials by half way through next year. As it enters its final phase, Justice Jallow explained that the Tribunal is beginning to identify best practices and lessons they have learned from their experiences since it was set up in 1994, following the genocide which claimed the lives of close to a million ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Once these best practices have been collated, Justice Jallow is keen to share them with the ICC “so it can learn from the mistakes we made”.

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