Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T12:27:41.372Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Understanding bricolage in norm development: South Africa, the International Criminal Court, and the contested politics of transitional justice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2020

Alexander Beresford Open the ORCID record for Alexander Beresford [Opens in a new window]  and
Daniel Wand
Alexander Beresford*
Affiliation:
School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds
Daniel Wand
Affiliation:
School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds
*
*Corresponding author. Email: a.beresford@leeds.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Within international relations the normative agency of African actors is often downplayed or derided. This article develops the concept of bricolage to offer a novel understanding of norm development and contestation in international relations, including the role African actors play in this. We contend that a norm's core hypothesis can be thought of as the nucleus of a norm. In the case of complex international norms, if this core hypothesis is sufficiently vague and malleable, the norm will continue to attract a range of actors who may claim to share a commitment to enacting the core hypothesis even if they simultaneously promote a variety of potentially conflicting and contradictory meanings-in-use of the norm when doing so. Each meaning-in-use, we argue, might be thought of as a product of bricolage: a process of combining and adapting both new and second-hand materials, knowledges, values, and practices by an actor to address a problem in hand. Through a detailed study of the contestation of transitional justice between South Africa and the International Criminal Court, we elucidate how bricolage can help to illuminate the normative agency of African actors in shaping transitional justice. Processes of bricolage add complexity and potentially confusion to a norm's development, but bricolage also offers the potential for a creative and dynamic means by which a range of actors can inject pluralism, dexterity, and vitality into debates about a norm's meaning and operationalisation.

Keywords

BricolageNormsICCSouth AfricaTransitional Justice
Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , October 2020 , pp. 534 - 554
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Lynch, Gabrielle, Performances of Justice: The Politics of Truth, Justice and Reconciliation in Kenya (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), p. 7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Clark, Phil, Distant Justice: The Impact of the International Criminal Court on African Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Wiener, Antje, ‘Enacting meaning-in-use: Qualitative research on norms and international relations’, Review of International Studies, 35:1 (2009), pp. 175–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Krook, Mona Lena and True, Jackie, ‘Rethinking the life cycles of international norms: The United Nations and the global promotion of gender equality’, European Journal of International Relations, 18:1 (2012), p. 104CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Jason Ralph uses this idea of a ‘core hypothesis’ to a norm in his work. See Ralph, Jason, ‘What should be done? Pragmatic constructivist ethics and the responsibility to protect’, International Organization, 72:1 (2018), pp. 173–203CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Winston, Carla, ‘Norm structure, diffusion, and evolution: A conceptual approach’, European Journal of International Relations, 24:3 (2018), p. 653CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Ibid., p. 654.

8 Lévi-Strauss, Claude, The Nature of Human Society: The Savage Mind (London: Weidenfield and Nicolson, 1966), pp. 16–36Google Scholar.

9 In some Business Studies scholarship ‘bricolage’ is a celebrated strategy of small and resourceful entrepreneurs. See Baker, Ted and Nelson, Reed E., ‘Constructing something from nothing: Resource construction through entrepreneurial bricolage’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 50:3 (2005), pp. 329–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This concept has also been used by geographers to discuss how development interventions might be more successful when they are culturally grounded. See Cleaver, Frances, ‘Reinventing institutions: Bricolage and the social embeddedness of natural resource management’, The European Journal of Development Research, 14:2 (2002), pp. 11–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Cleaver, Frances and de Koning, Jessica, ‘Furthering critical institutionalism’, International Journal of the Commons, 9:1 (2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 Acharya, Amitav, ‘How ideas spread: Whose norms matter? Norm localization and institutional change in Asian regionalism’, International Organization, 58:2 (2004), p. 241CrossRefGoogle Scholar, emphasis added.

12 Ibid.

13 Levitt, Peggy and Merry, Sally, ‘Vernacularization on the ground: Local uses of global women's rights in Peru, China, India and the United States’, Global Networks, 9:4 (2009), p. 446CrossRefGoogle Scholar, emphasis added.

14 This is where we differ from the application of bricolage by geographer Frances Cleaver who was studying local resource management in Zimbabwe and how local communities adapted to external development interventions. Cleaver's core concern was with the effectiveness of bureaucratic institutions and norms in a local cultural context. For Cleaver, bricolage was effectively a process of norm localisation in which ‘the use and adaptation of pre-existing [local] customs and practices confer new arrangements with the legitimacy of “tradition”’. See Cleaver, ‘Reinventing institutions’, p. 14.

15 Wiener, ‘Enacting meaning-in-use’, p. 180.

16 A phrase used by engineer scholar Lanzara, G. F., ‘Between transient constructs and persistent structures: Designing systems in action’, The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 8:4 (1999), pp. 331–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Baker and Nelson, ‘Constructing something from nothing’, p. 334.

18 Aidan Hehir's recent work details how norms subject to heavy contestation and/or co-optation can render the norm ‘hollow’. See Hehir, Aidan, Hollow Norms and the Responsibility to Protect (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 Ralph, ‘What should be done?’, p. 175.

20 Ralph, ‘What should be done?’, p. 176.

21 For discussion, see Harman, Sophie and Brown, William, ‘In from the margins? The changing place of Africa in international relations’, International Affairs, 89:1 (2013), pp. 69–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Munyi, Elijah Nyaga, Mwambari, David, and Ylönen, Aleksi (eds), Beyond History: African Agency in Development, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2020)Google Scholar; Shaw, Timothy M., Cheru, Fantu, and Cornelissen, Scarlett, Africa and International Relations in the 21st Century (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)Google Scholar; Abrahamsen, Rita, ‘Africa and international relations: Assembling Africa, studying the world’, African Affairs, 116:462 (2017), pp. 125–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Anderson, Emma Louise, ‘African health diplomacy: Obscuring power and leveraging dependency through shadow diplomacy’, International Relations, 32:2 (2018), pp. 194–217CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Medie, Peace, Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence against Women in Africa (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019)Google Scholar; Folashadé Soulé, ‘“Africa+1” summit diplomacy and the “new scramble” narrative: Recentreing African agency’, African Affairs, advanced access (2020). This research agenda of understanding 'Normative Politics in Africa' has also been promoted recently by Portia Roelofs, Sa'eed Husaini, and Dan Paget in a series of conferences.

22 Abrahamsen, Rita, ‘Internationalists, sovereigntists, nativists: Contending visions of world order in Pan-Africanism’, Review of International Studies, 46:1 (2020), p. 56CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Olonisakin, Funmi and Tofa, Moses, ‘Appropriating African agency in international relations’, in Munyi, Mwambari, and Ylönen (eds), Beyond History (2020), pp. 13–31Google Scholar, ch. 2. More broadly, this highlights the need for acknowledging and understanding the role of non-Western actors in developing and contesting liberal norms. See Stefan, Cristina, ‘On non-Western norm shapers: Brazil and the responsibility while protecting’, European Journal of International Security, 2:1 (2017), pp. 88–110CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 ‘About the ICTY’, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, available at: {http://www.icty.org/en/about} accessed 30 April 2018.

24 Robertson, Geoffrey QC, Crimes against Humanity. The Struggle for Global Justice (London: Penguin, 2006), p. 373Google Scholar.

25 Trachtman, Joel. P., The Future of International Law: Global Government (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Bassiouni, Cherif M., ‘Negotiating the Treaty of Rome on the establishment of the International Criminal Court’, Cornell International Law Journal, 32:3 (1999), p. 467Google Scholar.

27 Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Statement to the Inaugural Meeting of the Judges of the International Criminal Court, 11 March 2003, The Hague, cited in Peskin, Victor, ‘An idea becoming real? The International Criminal Court and the limits of the cosmopolitan vision of justice’, in Pierik, Roland and Werner, Wouter (eds), Cosmopolitanism in Context: Perspectives from International Law and Political Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 211Google Scholar.

28 ICC Website, ‘About’, available at: {https://www.icc-cpi.int/about} accessed 12 June 2018. ‘Justice is a key prerequisite of lasting peace. International criminal justice can contribute to long-term peace, stability and equitable development in post-conflict societies.’ ‘About the ICTY’ – ‘[t]he Tribunal has laid the foundations for what is now the accepted norm for conflict resolution and post-conflict development across the globe’, accessed 12 June 2018.

29 Akhavan, Payam, ‘The rise, and fall, and rise, of international criminal justice’, Journal of International Criminal Justice, 11:3 (2013), p. 532CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Mills, Kurt and Bloomfield, Alan, ‘African resistance to the International Criminal Court: Halting the advance of the anti-impunity norm’, Review of International Studies, 44:1 (2018), p. 102CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, ‘Policy Paper on the Interests of Justice. September 2007’, p. 4, available at: {https://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/rdonlyres/772C95C9-F54D-4321-BF09-73422BB23528/143640/ICCOTPInterestsOfJustice.pdf} accessed 9 September 2018.

32 James Stewart, Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Speech at the Conference on Transitional Justice in Colombia and the Role of the International Criminal Court entitled ‘Transitional Justice in Colombia and the Role of the International Criminal Court’, Bogota (13 May 2015), p. 5, available at: {https://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/otp/otp-stat-13-05-2015-ENG.pdf} accessed 9 September 2018.

33 Nouwen, Sarah M. H. and Werner, Wouter G., ‘Monopolizing global justice: International criminal law as challenge to human diversity’, Journal of International Criminal Justice, 13:1 (2015), pp. 162–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Kirsch, Phillipe and Robinson, Darryl, ‘Reaching agreement at the Rome Conference’, in Cassese, Antonio, Gaeta, Paola, and Jones, John R. W. D. (eds), The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: A Commentary, Volume 1 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 68Google Scholar.

35 Benedetti, Fanny, Bonneau, Karine, and Washburn, John L., Negotiating the International Criminal Court: New York to Rome, 1994–1998 (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2014), pp. 95–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 Teitel, Ruti G., ‘Transitional justice genealogy’, Harvard Human Rights Journal, 16 (2003), pp. 69–94Google Scholar.

37 Mamdani, Mahmood, Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics and the War on Terror (London: Verso, 2009). p. 268Google Scholar.

38 Graham, Matthew, The Crisis of South African Foreign Policy: Diplomacy, Leadership and the Role of the African National Congress (London: I. B. Tauris, 2015), pp. 6–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 UN, ‘International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid’ (New York, 1976), available at: {https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/unts/volume%201015/volume-1015-i-14861-english.pdf} accessed 7 July 2018.

40 ANC, ‘Statement from the Arusha Conference. Conference Proceedings’, Johannesburg (4 December 1987), available at: {http://www.anc.org.za/content/statement-arusha-conference} accessed 14 July 2018.

41 Huyse, Luc, ‘Justice after transition: On the choices successor elites make in dealing with the past’, Law & Social Inquiry, 20:1 (1995), p. 76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42 Esterhuyse, Willie, Secret Talks and the End of Apartheid (Cape Town: NB Publishers, 2012), p. 145Google Scholar.

43 ANC, The Groote Schuur Minute, Declaration, Cape Town, 4 May 1990.

44 Ibid.

45 Esterhuyse, Secret Talks, p. 289.

46 ANC, ‘Annexure to the Statement by State President FW De Klerk on the Timetable for Further Constitutional Reform’, Johannesburg (26 November 1993), available at: {http://www.anc.org.za/content/background-paper-annexure-statement-state-president-fw-de} accessed 17 September 2018.

47 Slovo, Joe, ‘Negotiations: What room for compromise?’, African Communist, 130:3 (1992)Google Scholar.

48 Asmal, Kadar, ‘Truth, reconciliation and justice: The South African experience in perspective’, The Modern Law Review, 63:1 (2000), p. 14CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49 ANC Resolutions of the National Consultative Conference, Conference Resolutions, Johannesburg (1990), available at: {http://www.anc.org.za/content/resolutions-national-consultative-conference} accessed 17 September 2018.

50 Quoted in Ntoubandi, Faustin, Amnesty for Crimes Against Humanity Under International Law (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2007), p. 15CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

51 Wolpe, Harold, ‘The uneven transition from apartheid in South Africa’, Transformation, 27 (1995), pp. 86–101Google Scholar.

52 ANC (various authors), ‘The SA transition in a world context’, Mayibuye, 6/7 (1995/1996), available at: {http://www.anc.org.za/publication/Mayibuye} accessed 17 September 2018.

53 The proceedings of the two conferences were published in Boraine, Alex, Levy, Janet, and Scheffer, RonelDealing with the Past: Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa (Cape Town: IDASA, 1994)Google Scholar and the second in Boraine, Alex, and Levy, Janet (eds), Healing of a Nation? (Cape Town: Justice in Transition, 1995)Google Scholar.

54 Dullah Omar, ‘Building a new future’, in Boraine and Levy (eds), Healing of a Nation?, p. 8.

55 This was a view advanced in the Cape Town conferences by leading civil society figures like Rev. Frank Chikane and ANC leaders like Albie Sachs and Dullah Omar. An excellent overview of the development of South Africa's transitional justice settlement is offered by Gready, Paul, The Era of Transitional Justice: The Aftermath of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa and Beyond (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

56 Ntoubandi, Amnesty for Crimes Against Humanity Under International Law, p. 61.

57 Asmal, ‘Truth, reconciliation and justice’, p. 13.

58 This approach, it should be noted, is not without its critics. See Mamdani, Mahmood, ‘Amnesty or impunity? A preliminary critique of the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa’, Diacritics, 32:3/4 (2002), pp. 33–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Msimang, Sisonke, ‘All is not forgiven: South Africa and the scars of apartheid’, Foreign Affairs, 97 (2018), pp. 28–34Google Scholar; Evans, Matthew, Transformative Justice: Remedying Human Rights Violations Beyond Transition (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 For example, former president of Chile Patricio Aylwin, among others, made these arguments at the Cape Town conferences. See Boraine and Levy (eds), Healing of a Nation?.

60 Febe Potgieter, ‘The weight of the past’, in Boraine and Levy (eds), Healing of a Nation?, p. 23.

61 ANC, ‘International Relations: Discussion document for 2012 ANC Congress’ (Johannesburg, 2012), p. 3.

62 Graham, The Crisis of South African Foreign Policy, p. 126.

63 Asmal, ‘Truth, reconciliation and justice’, p. 23.

64 Landsberg, Chris, The Quiet Diplomacy of Liberation: International Politics and South Africa's Transition (Johannesburg: Jacana Media, 2004)Google Scholar.

65 Prunier, Gérard, ‘Could the South African experience of conflict resolution help in bringing peace in Darfur?’, in Shillinger, Kurt (ed.), Africa's Peacemaker? Lessons from South African Conflict Mediation (Johannesburg: Jacana Media 2009), pp. 95–112Google Scholar.

66 Lynch, Performances of Justice.

67 Nathan, Laurie, ‘Interests, ideas and ideology: South Africa's policy on Darfur’, African Affairs, 110:438 (2011), pp. 55–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

68 Kurt Shillinger, ‘Learning from South African engagement in African crises’, in Shillinger (ed.), Africa's Peacemaker?, pp. 17–24.

69 Nkoana Mashabane, ‘Opening Statement: Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court’, The Hague (18–26 November 2015), available at: {http://www.dirco.gov.za/docs/speeches/2015/mash1118.htm} accessed 17 September 2018.

70 Tladi, Dire, ‘The duty on South Africa to arrest and surrender President Al-Bashir under South African and international law: A perspective from international law’, Journal of International Criminal Justice, 13:5 (2015), p. 1030CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

71 This is evident in the ‘anti-imperial’ tone of recent foreign policy discussion documents and pronouncements, particularly following the NATO intervention in Libya, where the ANC has actively welcomed the gradual replacement of a unipolar world order under US leadership with the multi-polar future it sees with the rise of China and other emerging powers.

72 Michael Masutha, ‘South Africa's Withdrawal from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court’, Statement to National Assembly (23 November 2016), available at: {https://www.parliament.gov.za/storage/app/media/Docs/hansard/cd41a47c-5b5b-4921-8cb4-b5a357477ab4.pdf} accessed 17 September 2018.

73 Plessis, Max du, ‘South Africa's International Criminal Court Act: Countering genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity’, Institute for Security Studies Papers, 172 (2008), p. 1Google Scholar.

74 Southern African Litigation Centre v. Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and others, Case no.27740/2015, Judgement of the High Court of South Africa (Gauteng Division, Pretoria), 24 June 2015, available at: {http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPPHC/2015/402.pdf} accessed 20 May 2019; The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and others v. Southern African Litigation Centre and others, Case no.867/15, Judgement of the Supreme Court of South Africa, 15 March 2016, available at: {http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZASCA/2016/17.pdf} accessed 20 May 2019.

75 The Prosecutor v. Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir, Case No. ICC-02/05-01/09, Decision under article 87(7) of the Rome Statute on the non-compliance by South Africa with the request by the Court for the arrest and surrender of Omar Al-Bashir, 6 July 2017, available at: {https://www.icc-cpi.int/CourtRecords/CR2017_04402.PDF} accessed 20 May 2020.

76 While the government had initially suggested that Al-Bashir had immunity by virtue of attending an international summit, it later clarified its position that his immunity derived from his position as a sitting head of state under customary international law.

77 UN, ‘Notification of South Africa of Withdrawal from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court’, UN Doc. C.N.786.2016.TREATIES-XVIII.10 (Depository Notification) (19 October 2016), available at: {https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/CN/2016/CN.786.2016-Eng.pdf} accessed 30 May 2019.

78 Ray Hartley, ‘Why Lindiwe Zulu's sarcastic hubris is wrong, wrong, wrong’, Timeslive, available at: {https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2015-06-25-why-lindiwe-zulus-sarcastic-hubris-is-wrong-wrong-wrong/} accessed 17 September 2018.

79 Boehme, Franziska, ‘“We chose Africa”: South Africa and the regional politics of cooperation with the International Criminal Court’, International Journal of Transitional Justice, 11:1 (2017), p. 50Google Scholar.

80 Isike, Christopher and Ogunnubi, Olusola, ‘The discordant soft power tunes of South Africa's withdrawal from the ICC’, Politikon, 44:1 (2017), p. 174CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

81 Mills and Bloomfield, ‘African resistance to the International Criminal Court’, p. 118.

82 The Prosecutor v. Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir, Case No. ICC-02/05-01/09, Submission from the Government of the Republic of South Africa from the purposes of proceedings under Article 87(7) of the Rome Statute, 17 March 2017, available at: {https://www.icc-cpi.int/CourtRecords/CR2017_01350.PDF} accessed 20 May 2019, §52.

83 Ibid.

84 The Prosecutor v. Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir, Case No. ICC-02/05-01/09 OA2, African Union's Submission in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan's Appeal Against the ‘Decision under Article 87(7) of the Rome Statute on Non-Compliance by Jordan with the Request by the Court for the Arrest and Surrender [of] Omar Al-Bashir’, 13 July 2018, available at: {https://www.icc-cpi.int/CourtRecords/CR2018_03735.PDF} accessed 20 May 2019.

85 See, for example, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development v. Southern African Litigation Centre in the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Case No. CCT 75/16, Written Submissions of the First Amici Curiae: John Dugard and Guénaël Mettraux, 13 October 2016, §31; Kiyani, Asad G., ‘Al-Bashir and the ICC: The problem of Head of State immunity’, Chinese Journal of International Law, 12:3 (2013), pp. 487–500CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gaeta, Paola, ‘Does President Al-Bashir enjoy immunity from arrest?’, Journal of International Criminal Justice, 7:2 (2009), p. 323CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

86 UN, ‘Notification of South Africa of Withdrawal’, p. 3. See also, ‘Submission from the Government of the Republic of South Africa’, §75–80.

87 William Schabas, ‘Obama, Medvedev and Hu Jintao May Be Prosecuted by the International Criminal Court, Pre Trial Chamber Concludes’, PhD Studies in Human Rights, available at: {http://humanrightsdoctorate.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/obama-medvedev-and-hu-jintao-may-be.html} accessed 23 July 2018; Tladi, Dire, ‘When the elephants collide it is the grass that suffers: Cooperation and the Security Council in the context of the AU/ICC dynamic’, African Journal of Legal Studies, 7:3 (2014), p. 392CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

88 For a detailed examination of how these factions were shaping up at this time, see Beresford, Alexander, South Africa's Political Crisis: Unfinished Liberation and Fractured Class Struggles (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2016), pp. 25–46Google Scholar.

89 ANC, ‘International Relations’; ANC, ‘International Relations: Discussion Document’, Johannesburg (March 2017), available at: {https://www.politicsweb.co.za/documents/international-relations-anc-discussion-document-20} accessed 21 January 2019.

90 Susan Van De Merwe, ‘Farewell Message’, Pretoria (14 April 2005), available at: {http://www.dirco.gov.za/docs/speeches/2005/merw0414.htm} accessed 17 September 2018.

91 Acting as AU Chairperson, Cyril Ramaphosa is said to have led the talks with both sides. {http://www.dirco.gov.za/docs/2020/au0220.htm} accessed 10 April 2020

92 Jef Radebe, ‘United Nations Security Council Debate on the Situation in the Sudan’, New York (14 July 2011), available at: {http://www.dirco.gov.za/docs/speeches/2011/rade0714.html} accessed 17 September 2018.

93 This includes the AU's Ministerial Committee on Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Sudan and the AU High Level Implementation Panel led by Thabo Mbeki.

94 Nkoana Mashabane, ‘The Conclusion of the Courtesy Call on President of Government of Southern Sudan, Salva Kirr Mayardit’, Juba (17 September 2009), available at: {http://www.dirco.gov.za/docs/speeches/2009/mash0917.html} accessed 17 September 2018.

95 Nathan, ‘Interests, ideas and ideology’.

96 Indeed, Mbeki was awarded with Sudan's Highest Order, the Insignia of Honour, by Al-Bashir during a 2004 visit. See also DIRCO, ‘South African Government's Response to the Recent Military Confrontation between the Republic of Sudan and South Sudan’, Pretoria (30 March 2012), available at: {http://www.dirco.gov.za/docs/2012/suda0402.html} accessed 17 September 2018.

97 ANC, ‘National Executive Committee Statement’, Johannesburg (29 September 2013). available at: {http://www.anc.org.za/content/nec-statement} accessed 17 September 2018.

98 See, for example, Lidiwe Zulu, ‘The Implications of the Attendance and Departure of President Omar Al-Bashir from the African Union Summit in South Africa’, Speech to National Assembly, Cape Town (23 July 2015), available at: {http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politics/albashir-history-will-absolve-us--lindiwe-zulu} accessed 17 September 2018.

99 Thabo Mbeki, ‘Justice Cannot Trump Peace’, interview with Al Jazeera (23 November 2013), available at: {https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/2013/11/thabo-mbeki-justice-cannot-trump-peace-2013112210658783286.html?xif=} accessed 17 September 2018.

100 DIRCO, ‘Joint Communiqué issued at the Conclusion of the Working Visit of H.E. President Thabo Mbeki of the Republic of South Africa to the Republic of the Sudan’ (16 September 2008), available at: {http://www.dirco.gov.za/docs/2008/suda0916.html} accessed 17 September 2018.

101 Ibid.

102 The Prosecutor v. Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir, Case No. ICC-02/05-01/09, Decision following the Prosecutor's request for an order further clarifying that the Republic of South African is under an obligation to immediately arrest and surrender Omar Al-Bashir, 13 June 2015, available at: {https://www.icc-cpi.int/CourtRecords/CR2015_06500.PDF} accessed 20 May 2019, pp. 4–5.

103 DIRCO, ‘South Africa's Submission to the International Criminal Court (ICC) Regarding the Matter of President Al-Bashir of Sudan’, press release. Pretoria (5 October 2015), available at: {http://www.dirco.gov.za/docs/2015/suda1005.htm} accessed 17 September 2018).

104 ‘Submission from the Government of the Republic of South Africa’, p. 11.

105 DIRCO, ‘South Africa's Submission to the International Criminal Court’.

106 ‘Submission from the Government of the Republic of South Africa’, p. 16.

107 UN, ‘Notification of South Africa of Withdrawal’, p. 3.

108 ANC, ‘Concourt Decision Halts DA Agenda to Defend Imperialism’, Johannesburg (15 November 2016), available at: {https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/concourt-decision-halts-da-agenda-to-defend-imperi} accessed 10 April 2020.

109 Abrahamsen, ‘Africa and international relations’, p. 134.

110 Ralph, ‘What should be done?’.

111 Wesley W. Widmaier and Luke Glanville, ‘The benefits of norm ambiguity: Constructing the responsibility to protect across Rwanda, Iraq and Libya’, Contemporary Politics, 21:4 (2015), p. 369.

112 For a detailed account, see Clark, Distant Justice.

113 Statement of New Zealand delivered by Mr C. Reaich at the 15th Session of the Assembly State Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (17 November 2016), available at: {https://asp.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/asp_docs/ASP15/GenDeba/ICC-ASP15-GenDeba-NewZealand-ENG.pdf} accessed 13 September 2018.

114 The statements are available at: {https://asp.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/asp/sessions/general%20debate/Pages/GeneralDebate_15th_session.aspx} accessed 13 September 2018.

115 The Prosecutor v Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir, Case No. ICC-02/05-01/09, Order inviting expressions of interest as amici curiae in judicial proceedings (pursuant to rule 103 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence), 29 March 2018, available at: {https://www.icc-cpi.int/CourtRecords/CR2018_01892.PDF} accessed 30 May 2019.

116 Charles Jalloh, Twitter (31 March 2018), available at: {https://twitter.com/CharlesJalloh/status/979870179495698434} accessed 13 September 2018.

117 Diana Goff, Twitter (21 May 2018), available at: {https://twitter.com/dianajanaegoff/status/998570425142702080} accessed 22 May 2018.

118 Statement of the Republic of South Africa by Mr J. Jeffery at the 18th Session of the Assembly State Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (2 December 2019), available at: {https://asp.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/asp_docs/ASP18/GD.SOU.2.12.pdf} accessed 15 January 2020.