In recognition of Fatou Bensouda’s recent election as Chief Prosecutor of the International Crimial Court (ICC), SEN Jounal: Online Exclusives is delighted to present excerpts from SEN’s interview with Mrs Bensouda, originally published in Volume 11, Issue 1 (April 2011).
Before becoming Chief Prosecutor in December 2011, Mrs Bensouda served as Deputy Prosecutor to the ICC from 2004. Drawing on her long-term experience in the Court as well as her previous diverse career in Gambia and at the ICTR, Mrs Bensouda highlights the need to see the ICC as part of an international criminal justice system that relies on the principle of ‘complementarity’ between international institutions and state parties. In addition, Mrs Bensouda argues that, instead of seeing the relationship between African states and the ICC as one of tension, Africa has in fact been taking a leading role within this particular justicial mechanism. The commitment of African state leaders to international criminal justice has been reaffirmed through their participation in the Review Conference in Kampala as recently as June 2010.