Can contemporary international law adequately respond to the demands of Third World peoples for justice for colonial crimes?
 

Authors:

J Iyi & L Mushoriwa
 

Summary: 

From Africa to Asia to the Caribbean, there is a growing movement demanding redress for colonial crimes. Third World peoples are beginning to engage their former colonisers on different multilateral platforms to press for accountability for the harm suffered by communities that were victims of colonial atrocities during centuries of colonial rule. Most former colonial powers now concede that even if prosecution of colonial crimes may not be possible today due to many factors, at the very minimum, there is indeed a need for some form of accountability and atonement. However, there is disagreement about the form such accountability should take and the appropriate and acceptable legal framework for addressing colonial legacies, particularly atrocities committed in wars of colonial conquests and centuries of violent dispossession and colonial subjugation. In this book chapter, we ask the question whether contemporary international law can adequately respond to the demands of Third World peoples for justice for colonial crimes. If not, can the Third World Approach to International Law (TWAIL) offer an alternative paradigm? The question of how the current international legal regime can address colonial crimes remains a difficult one, and we seek to contribute to the debate by highlighting the disruptive, emancipatory and transformative characteristics of TWAIL and its potential to contribute to the search for an alternative narrative of international legal rules in a way that takes seriously the need for redress for legacies of colonial crimes.  


Link to book chapter