The African justice cascade and the malabo protocol

This article argues that the Protocol on Amendments to the Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights (Malabo Protocol) reconceptualizes the idea of transitional justice mechanisms as varying approaches meant solely to address the legacy of abuse in one nation, and proposes that transitional justice mechanisms can also encompass regional and transnational efforts to respond to mass human rights violations. It also argues that the Protocol seeks to correct for perceived biases in international criminal justice. The article illuminates the ways in which the Protocol builds on the justice cascade. It provides a brief overview of the domestic, hybrid and international criminal trials in Africa that have informed the development of the regional court, and argues that the Malabo Protocol offers the Continent an important, alternative vision of regional criminal justice. The article concludes that the regional court could arguably tailor criminal accountability to the context, needs and aspirations of the Continent