It took the International Criminal Court (ICC) ten years to convict and sentence its first offender. As it enters its second decade, is it an impartial court or are some governments manipulating the ICC to investigate cases against rival opposition groups? In the ten years since the ICC first came to life, the tribunal—meant to serve as a criminal court for the world—has served exclusively as a criminal court for Africa. All seven of its investigations—Côte d’Ivoire, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Libya, Sudan and Uganda—have been on the African continent. In March the court convicted…
Afua Hirsch
“Sexploitation” in Ghana by Afua Hirsch Yvonne Ntiamoah, a resident in the Ghanaian capital Accra, was driving her two daughters home when she heard something on a local radio station that she could simply not endure. “The presenters were having a discussion about a seven-year-old girl who had been raped or, as they called it ‘defiled’,” said Ms Ntiamoah, a lecturer at Radford University in Ghana. “It was just so graphic; they were describing how the man had lured the little girl into his room; how he was on top of her, and then they began imitating the sound effects,…
Ghana’s gold star democracy is still shining. by Afua Hirsch There is a saying among political scientists that the more entertaining a country’s political process is, the less real policy is involved. This is a charge often levied at Ghana, which has now managed three peaceful transitions of power since 1992. The run-up to Ghana’s December 7th 2012 elections gives a good sense of the state of Ghanaian society. Ghana has carved a niche for itself as a haven of order in West Africa, a region still plagued by political instability. This has not been lost on foreign investors, who…
A new frontier is emerging in the murky world of piracy. The Gulf of Guinea—an area that stretches from West Africa’s Guinea to Angola—is slowly becoming engulfed in what the United Nations (UN) has described as a “catastrophe” with a record number of armed criminal gangs targeting shipping along its coast. On August 28th a Greek-owned oil tanker carrying 50,000 tonnes of diesel and petrol fuel was attacked off the West African coast of Togo. Pirates seized control of the vessel, took its 23 Russian crew-members hostage and sailed towards Nigeria. It was the eighth such incident or attempted incident…
West Africa’s airports: about to take off Billions of dollars are being spent on new terminals and renovations as investment and tourism rise by Afua Hirsch Africa’s airports need an upgrade. Though three of the world’s best airports— ranking higher than any airports in the US—are in South Africa, others on the continent are terminally ill. Skytrax, a research company which surveys millions of passengers, listed South Africa’s Cape Town International Airport at 22nd best, Durban’s King Shaka International at 26, and Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International at 28 on its 2013 list of the world’s 100 best airports. No other…
A new frontier is emerging in the murky world of piracy. The Gulf of Guinea—an area that stretches from West Africa’s Guinea to Angola—is slowly becoming engulfed in what the United Nations (UN) has described as a “catastrophe” with a record number of armed criminal gangs targeting shipping along its coast. On August 28th a Greek-owned oil tanker carrying 50,000 tonnes of diesel and petrol fuel was attacked off the West African coast of Togo. Pirates seized control of the vessel, took its 23 Russian crew-members hostage and sailed towards Nigeria. It was the eighth such incident or attempted incident…
