In spite of the existence of the 1973 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally-Protected Persons and other conventions on the prevention and punishment of crimes under international law, crimes against Internationally-Protected Persons continue to occur at an alarming rate. This dissertation is a critique of the laws on prevention and punishment of crimes against Internationally-Protected Persons. The general aim of the dissertation is to critically review the regulations on the prevention and punishment of crimes against Internationally-Protected Persons under international law. In dealing with the task of this dissertation, the doctrinal method of research, among others was adopted. References were made to all necessary source materials, for example the laws, textbooks and journals. After gathering information, the following observations came to the fore: the broad immunity granted under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 has in certain cases been exploited to obstruct international justice; there is a lack of robust enforcement mechanisms under the relevant international conventions and there is jurisdictional challenges, for example, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) does not explicitly grant the ICC jurisdiction over such crimes, unless they fall within the broader categories of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity. Based on these observations, the following recommendations were proffered: there should be an amendment of the 1973 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally-Protected Persons, so as to incorporate specific enforcement provisions or a supervisory authority to ensure compliance and there should be the expansion of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court to cover crimes against Internationally-Protected Persons. The following are the contributions to knowledge: the study identified and systematically analysed the practical challenges associated with the enforcement of international legal protections for Internationally-Protected Persons; and the study has proposed an amendment to the 1973 Internationally-Protected Persons Convention to, include enforcement mechanisms and the creation of a supervisory body, that is the Internationally-Protected Persons Authority
Keywords: Crimes, International law, Prevention, Punishment, internationally protected persons
