Closer collaboration between the AU and the UN in peacekeeping operations is a critical issue.

States need an appropriate instrument to respond to serious violations of international humanitarian law, to prevent such crimes in the future.

Recent events show that international and humanitarian law are often no more than forms of convenient discourse for those at war.

Mary Robinson, a former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (HCHR), who faulted countries such as the United States, China and Israel for transgressions of…