ICC comes of age at 20

The ICC is currently investigating cases in Burundi, Central African Republic; Côte d’Ivoire; Darfur, Sudan, the DR Congo, Georgia, Kenya, Libya, Mali, and Uganda. It also has preliminary examinations in Afghanistan, Colombia, Gabon, Guinea, Iraq, the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Palestine, the Philippines, Comoros, Greece, Cambodia, Ukraine, and Venezuela.

But the court suffered a backlash when, in 2009 and 2010, it indicted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and issued summons to appear for Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2014. African states accused the court of bias and whipped up anti-ICC sentiments among the continent’s leaders.

It was a build-up from 2009, when the African Union had urged its member states not to cooperate with the court regarding al-Bashir’s warrants, leading to what the AU called a withdrawal strategy in 2017. So far, the AU threat has not led to a walk out but it has ensured constructive engagement.

But some experts, like Allan Ngari; a senior researcher at the Pretoria-based Institute of Security Studies, believe the threat of AU withdrawal is the greatest challenge the ICC faces.

Ngari says this is because cooperation is an essential cog in the Rome Statute wheel of justice, and without it the ICC cannot deliver on its mandate.

Odong puts it more directly: “There are states that feel that they are bigger than global justice.” For him, that the ICC cannot go for individuals from member states that do not subscribe to the Rome Statute remains a bigger challenge, even if the UN Security Council could deal with such cases.

But Dr. Livingstone Sewanyana, the executive director of the NGO; Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, says it should not be surprising that the ICC has indicted more leaders from Africa than elsewhere.

“That is not surprising because African leaders have been at the forefront of abusing those fundamental rights,” Sewanyana who also doubles as the United Nations Human Rights Council’s independent expert on the promotion of democratic and equitable international order, told The Independent in an interview.

He says the ICC has been an important development in dealing with crimes against humanity because, before it, the world did not have an international mechanism to address this problem. He says the ICC has achieved a lot in its 20-year lifespan given that it requires cooperation from heads of state.

But going forward, Sewanyana, says the ICC needs to rethink how to address the global challenge of impunity. He says a lot of violations and abuse go unpunished in DR Congo, Sudan, Uganda and others. He says a better approach would be for the ICC to decentralize its activities around the world instead of being cocooned in The Hague. He says the ICC’s presence would be felt more if it were decentralized.

The future

Today, peace has returned to northern Uganda and Ochen heads an NGO, the Africa Youth Initiative Network, based in Lira town. It rehabilitates victims and survivors of the LRA and Ochen is happy.

But Odong says the Victims Trust Fund that the ICC set up to cater for survivors like Ochen should be spread across all northern Uganda, instead of being limited only to those areas under investigation.

For Lina Zedriga Waru, the secretary of the Uganda National Committee for the prevention and punishment of Genocide and Mass Atrocity (UNCP-GNA) it is the slow pace of the ICC’s justice system that she finds frustrating. She says, as a result, the ICC is still not understood by many of the victims of the northern Uganda conflict.

“In terms of victim participation in the ICC, the system remains too technical and too slow and limited for the victims,” she told The Independent on July 23.

Back in The Hague and to the 20 year anniversary celebrations, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda stressed that although the international criminal justice system is ever evolving, the ICC is its central pillar.

“A more rule-based global order where mass atrocities are checked through the force of the law and the progress of humanity demand it,” she said.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari who was the chief guest told the guests that ICC’s biggest achievement has been giving hope for justice to so many victims.

Buhari urged all states that have not yet done so to, as a matter of deliberate state policy, accede to the Rome Statute of the ICC so that it can become a universal treaty.”

As part of the commemoration, representatives of the Assembly, the Court, the Trust Fund for Victims, civil society and counsel planted a tree on the Court’s premises in The Hague in remembrance of the victims of the most serious crimes as well as to symbolize a deep-rooted commitment to end impunity for such acts.