Criminal Justice Responses to the Boko Haram Crisis in Nigeria

Book excerpt: This book concentrates on the crisis perpetrated by the Boko Haram group in Nigeria, which since 2009 has made a definitive impact on both the domestic and international criminal landscape. The volume centres on three core issues: first, an assessment of the criminal legal responses at the domestic level, where the legal characterization of the conducts in question, including an evaluation of the state of specific domestic prosecutions, are assessed. Secondly, the book gauges the potential for international criminal justice while evaluating the Boko Haram situation at the International Criminal Court. This includes an assessment of the jurisdictional aspects, the admissibility, and the interests of justice requirements in addition to the appraisal of conducts amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated. Finally, the book explores possible non-prosecutorial responses in the form of classic and non-classic transitional justice mechanisms that may be utilized as a response to the crisis in Nigeria. Furthermore, it draws instructive lessons from Nigeria’s past misadventure with specific transitional justice mechanisms while exploring the realities of utilizing the restorative justice mechanisms available in Nigeria. The volume concludes by calling for a victim-centred approach in the discourse around the Boko Haram crisis. This book presents a definitive study of the history of the development of Boko Haram and the related domestic and international criminal legal issues. Researchers and anyone seeking to understand the Boko Haram crisis in relation to international criminal law, including those looking for a clear overview of the criminal conduct perpetrated by Boko Haram in Nigeria and a view of Nigeria’s domestic legal regime, will benefit from the information on offer. Victoria Ojo-Adewuyi is a lawyer, called to the Nigeria Bar in 2012. She obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree (LL.B) in 2011 from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (Nigeria), obtained a Master of Laws Degree (LL.M) from the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town (South Africa) and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin under the South African-German Centre for Transnational Criminal Justice in 2016, and completed her doctorate in International Criminal Law at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Germany) in 2022.