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Abstract

The refusal of the African Union (AU) and its leaders to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) led to the negotiation of the Protocol on Amendments to the Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights 2014 (the Malabo Protocol). The Protocol incorporates the core crimes of the Rome Statute and, in addition, expands on the meaning of international crime by defining crimes related to the environment, among others. Although the Malabo Protocol is innovative in its provisions, it lacks the potential to prevent ecocide in Africa or to serve as a model for an international legal instrument on ecocide. First, it reduces the definition of illicit exploitation of the environment to, mainly, a breach of a contract for such exploitation or a lack of such a contract. Furthermore, African leaders have not shown any serious commitment to seeing the protocol enter into force. However, in 2021, the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide proposed a definition of ecocide, recommending that the Rome Statute be amended to bring crimes against the environment under the ICC jurisdiction. This proposal is significant in the context of Africa, where the business activities of transnational corporations (TNCs) have caused significant environmental harm, particularly given the lack of a clear-cut international accountability mechanism to address these abuses. Therefore, this Article aims to examine the effectiveness of the ICC in redressing environmental harm committed, especially by TNCs in Africa, having regard to the strained relationship between the ICC and the AU. This Article concludes that Africa’s natural environment and resources will be better protected under the ICC regime and calls on African leaders to champion the amendment of the ICC Statute to include ecocide as one of the core international crimes. (from author)

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