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Mail & Guardian
Atilla Kisla

Creator

Atilla Kisla

Atilla Kisla is the international justice cluster lead at the Southern Africa Litigation Centre

APARTHEID CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

Cosas 4: Naming the elephant in the room – the crime of apartheid

For South Africa, it carries profound emotional and legal weight. Beyond South Africa, this case sends an important message of accountability to the world and anyone dealing with…

  • Atilla Kisla
6 min read
Sudan accuses the UAE of supporting genocide in West Darfur by aiding the Rapid Support Forces. Photo: Reuters/Goran Tomasevic
GENOCIDE CONVENSTION

SA’s arms exports to UAE, a state accused of violating Genocide Convention

In 2023, South Africa sold nearly R88 million worth of arms to the United Arab Emirates, to support a paramilitary group in Sudan

  • Atilla Kisla
6 min read
DONALD TRUMP

International justice: End or emancipation?

If we are to avoid a world where impunity reigns and the powerful are above the law, states committed to international justice must rethink accountability approaches and alliances

  • Atilla Kisla
7 min read
President Cyril Ramaphosa and Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)
CYRIL RAMAPHOSA

South Africa and the  International Criminal Court’s relationship is complicated

Regarding Russia and Ukraine, the ICC has never received state referrals from 39 state parties to look into a situation in another country

  • Atilla Kisla
8 min read
Rwanda’s former army chief Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa looks on at a court in Johannesburg on July 10, 2012. Ex-Rwandan army general is in court to testify in the trial of men charged with attempting to kill him outside his Johannesburg home in 2010. Nyamwasa told a South African court on June 21, 2012 that he was shot two years ago for defying President Paul Kagame, as he testified in the trial of six men. “The reasons why I would think anyone would want me dead is that I have over the years defied the leadership, in particular President Kagame, on things that needed change,” Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa told a Johannesburg court. AFP PHOTO / STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN (Photo credit should read STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/GettyImages)
AL BASHIR

South Africa: A safe haven for perpetrators of international crimes?

Examples from the past 10 years illustrate a growing trend to avoid or slow down extradition proceedings to other countries or transfers to international entities

  • Atilla Kisla
6 min read
Detail of a banner held by anti-arms trade activists during a demonstration outside the annual black-tie dinner of the Aerospace, Defence and Security Group at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane in London, England, on January 22, 2020. The ADS Group, a London-headquartered non-profit trade organisation, represents and supports more than 1,000 British businesses involved in the aerospace, defence, security and space sectors. The protest was called by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and Stop The Arms Fair pressure groups, citing in particular sales of UK-made weapons and ammunition to Saudi Arabia, which continues to strike Houthi rebels in Yemen in a five-year war that has killed over 100,000 people and left millions more suffering. (Photo by David Cliff/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
OPEN SECRETS

Back to old habits? South African arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE

Does South Africa care more about its own economic interests than the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in Yemen?

  • Atilla Kisla
6 min read
BLANKET AMNESTY

The recently renewed NPA should show its teeth

The body should overcome its reluctance to classify atrocities as crimes against humanity, as the cases of Joao Rodrigues and Wouter Basson demonstrate

  • Atilla Kisla
5 min read
Former apartheid security police officer João Rodrigues, who was charged with the murder of anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol in 1971, died at his home on Monday. (Anthony Schultz/M&G)
AFRICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES RIGHTS

João Rodrigues, apartheid-era crimes and the question of a blanket amnesty

The former Security Branch officer is asking the SCA for a permanent stay of appeal in the prosecution of the murder of Ahmed Timol in 1971

  • Atilla Kisla
6 min read
A 2016 study by the organisation found that 44% of LGBTI people surveyed said they had experienced discrimination in the previous two years, and 88% hadn’t reported these incidents. (Reuters)
HATE SPEECH

Hate speech and LGBTI rights: perspectives from the Jon Qwelane case

South Africa has an obligation to prohibit hate speech under international law, including against LGBTI persons. But now the Constitutional Court has to decide whether the hate…

  • Atilla Kisla
6 min read
It is true that in the African continent, ethnicity is a dreaded term because of the continent’s experience with ethnicity- or tribe-based inter-group animosities and conflicts that, in some countries, morphed into genocides. (Zinyange Auntony/AFP)
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

Zimbabwe: What is the current status of the Torture Docket case?

International crimes must be prosecuted and domestic jurisdictions are well placed to do this. Domestic prosecutions based on universal jurisdiction are on the rise

  • Atilla Kisla
6 min read