UNITY REQUIRED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST ABUSE OF UNIVERSAL JURISDICTION

A meeting of the Executive Committee of the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU) in Cameroon early this week, condemned the abuse of the principle of Universal Jurisdiction or the Universality principle. The principle which has in the recent past been selectively and conveniently applied by municipal Judges in European countries against leaders in Africa has been rendered a tool of anarchy by the actions of Judges like Louis Bruguiere of France and Fernando Merrelles of Spain. The principle in the case of its application by the two judges against Rwandan leaders shows that it can be used to serve political purposes. The end result is a tyranny in the global justice system. What happens is that the principle in reality can only be applied by rich and powerful countries against leaders of poor countries that are seen as not being pushovers by those countries.