Media Collection | Africa Decolonize Law!
Colonialism is omnipresent in international law. The three-part film series Decolonize Law! shows how international law has been used in many areas from the beginning of colonialism to the present day to secure domination and reproduce power relations.
The three short documentary films were conceived by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in cooperation with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights and realized by VAYM Productions. The book on which the films are based, Dekoloniale Rechtskritik und Praxis, highlights key weaknesses in international law from a post-colonial perspective. In their volume, Wolfgang Kaleck and Karina Theurer combine theoretical approaches with practice while incorporating the perspectives of activists and lawyers. The films make clear that the violence and arbitrariness of colonization has been formally legitimized in international law since the sixteenth century, rendering it“invisible” as injustice. A reappraisal of the colonial past and the visualization of the racist traces that ithas left behind in law are therefore urgently needed for a long-term decolonization of the legal system.
With the films, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation aims to raise awareness of the far-reaching and complex consequences of colonialism and at the same time highlight solutions to combat persistent inequalities.
Decolonize Law! Part 1: Colonial Crimes and International Law
The example of Namibia is used to show how international law serves to legitimize colonial violence and how the Herero and Nama people still have to fight for recognition of the genocide today. All topics are addressed on the basis of the individual stories of those affected combined with the testimonies of experts.
Decolonize Law! Part 2: Exploitation through Trade and Transnational Law
The second part of the film series uses the example of Kenya to address the effects of trade law and foreign investment on local economies from independence to the present day. The film shows how exploitation and dependencies are perpetuated by transnational companies. Here, too, individual stories of those affected are told and combined with the testimonies of experts.
Decolonize Law! Part 3: Fighting for Transformation
The third and final film delves deeper into the topics covered in the first two films and is dedicated to the ambivalences in law: international law experts and legal scholars from Sweden, the UK, and Germany vividly explain how international law is still misused in many areas today to legally legitimize exploitation. However, law can also be used to fight injustice. Examples show how law can be used to overcome global injustice.
