Abstract

The poster presentation focuses on the International Criminal Courts (ICC) authorisation to open an investigation into the post-election violence seen in Kenya from late 2007 to spring 2008 and discusses the justifications the ICC advocated in classifying the conflict as falling within the Article 7 (Crimes Against Humanity) remit of the Rome Statute 1998.
Furthermore, the poster also examines the dissenting opinion of Judge Hans-Peter Kaul on the matter regarding ICC jurisdiction of these crimes, the use of and application of customary international law within the ICC framework, which, it could be argued, may only use the Rome Statute as an authoritative source. Moreover, the poster critically analyses whether the violence seen in Kenya during this period (classified for this poster as internal violence of a political nature) should come within the scope of the ICC and be classified as an Article 7 crime in this context.
The poster also asks what ramifications the Kenyan situation has for other conflicts of a similar nature and how the ICCs handling of the Kenyan investigation could potentially undermine the legitimacy of the court in pursuing individuals that are believed to have orchestrated and/ or perpetrated internal violence of a political nature and whether changes need to be made to aid this process.