Africa needs to lead the charge for an international anti-corruption court

Mail & Guardian

06-05-2025

Among the participants at the launch of a policy brief, International Anti-Corruption Court: How Will It Serve Africa?, were Justice Richard Goldstone, Chief Justice Martha Koome of Kenya, Justice Key Dingake. Photo: Supplied
If corruption is a disease to our society and body politic, impunity is what stops us from healing. For far too long, Africa has been left gasping, looking for a cure to overcome the devastation wrought by corruption.
At the recent launch of a new policy brief titled International Anti-Corruption Court: How Will It Serve Africa?, a panel of judges, scholars and policymakers sent a clear message: African leaders must take ownership of the movement to establish a new international anti-corruption Court (IAC court) — or risk allowing the same old cycles of injustice and theft to continue unchallenged. Support for this initiative, the establishment of an IAC court is an endeavour African states can direct and help realise.
The launch opened with remarks from Justice Richard Goldstone, followed by a message of support from Chief Justice Martha Koome of Kenya, and a keynote by Justice Key Dingake. Backed by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, Integrity Initiatives International, Transparency International Kenya and Good Governance Africa, the gathering drew together some of the continent's most critical voices against corruption.
Speaker after speaker hammered home a grim but familiar reality: Africa remains one of the regions most battered by corruption's effects. From crippled development projects to weakened governance, the costs have been enormous. Worse still, grand corruption — the kind committed by those at the highest levels of power — continues to flourish, often protected by a stubborn culture of impunity.
In the face of this entrenched problem, the idea of an IAC court has gained significant traction. Proponents envision a tribunal that would treat high-level corruption as a crime of international concern — similar to war crimes or crimes against humanity. This court would not replace national justice systems, but complement them, stepping in where domestic courts are unable or unwilling to hold the powerful to account.
The IAC court proposal is gaining momentum. In 2021, a global Declaration calling for its creation was signed by more than 300 leaders from 80 countries, including dozens of former presidents and Nobel laureates. By 2024, a draft treaty and commentary were well under way, prepared by a task force of judges, prosecutors and legal scholars. The vision is clear: a court capable of pursuing the kleptocrats and corporate enablers who now operate with near-total impunity.
Africa's own experience is central to this conversation. The Malabo Protocol, designed to create an African criminal court with jurisdiction over crimes such as corruption, shows that African states have already contemplated regional accountability mechanisms. With only one ratification (Angola), however, the Protocol has remained little more than a good idea on paper.
Meanwhile, the scale of theft remains staggering. The High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows chaired by former president Thabo Mbeki estimated that Africa has lost more than $1 trillion to illicit outflows over the past 50 years — roughly equivalent to all foreign aid received over the same period. The IAC court could play a transformative role here, helping to recover and repurpose stolen assets, returning funds to the communities they were stolen from through orders of restitution and civil suits.
Yet Africa's relationship with international justice is fraught. Understandably so. Many African leaders and citizens remember how international legal mechanisms have often marginalised African voices or served Western interests under the guise of 'universal values'. Scepticism is healthy; but disengagement would be a mistake.
African lawyers, scholars and policymakers have long been at the forefront of reimagining corruption as a human rights violation and a threat to democratic governance. It is African states that pushed for stronger commitments under the African Union Convention Against Corruption, going beyond even the UN Convention Against Corruption in some areas.
The choice ahead is stark. Africa can either sit back and let others design yet another international institution with little regard for African priorities or it can seize this moment to demand a court that truly serves African interests: one that respects sovereignty, enforces accountability and helps return stolen wealth to the people to whom it belongs.
Corruption thrives when accountability is absent. The IAC court is not a magic bullet, but it could be an essential tool in breaking the cycle of impunity that continues to rob Africa of its future.
Prosper S Maguchu is an assistant professor of law specialising in financial crimes and international asset recovery from a human rights-based approach. Karam Singh is the deputy director of the Integrity International Initiatives.