The Lubanga trial in The Hague at the International Criminal Court (ICC) marks a fundamental turning point for international justice in the fight against impunity. The plight of child soldiers has been one of the serious concerns of the international community.

In the DRC, the issue of child soldiers has a been central concern for the Congolese government during the past decade. The first national law protecting children has just been adopted by the parliament in June 2008.

The Lubanga trial evokes mixed feelings in the Congo among human rights activists and local communities, including children. Many agree that the it is an unprecedented step, but others point out that peace has not come yet.
It is clear that for many people, there’s still a long way before they see peace and feel security: militias are still operating across the eastern part of the country, hundreds of children are reportedly recruited by armed groups despite the fact that Lubanga is at the trial.

This is an indication that people should have realistic expectations; the clear indicator of the impact of the Lubanga trial is the cessation of child recruitment by any parties in conflict in the DRC. But why are children still at risk of recruitment as child soldiers in the eastern DRC?
I think there are many reasons to explain this:
1. People still don’t make the connection between Lubanga and the crimes with which he’s charged: the priority is given to security over justice. Children in war zones being easy prey, they’ll be at risk.
2. Lack of trust in the ICC to be an independent justice institution: People still see the ICC as a western court, and Lubanga is being prosecuted as a scapegoat–at least according to some communities in or from Ituri and even outside Ituri.
3. The lack of domestic capacity to incorporate ICC crimes: although the DRC has a law protecting children against any abuses, domestic institutions are still too far behind to lead the fight against impunity.
4. The political climate is passive: there’s still a mentality of acquiring political power by military power.

Justifying the crimes for which Lubanga was arrested remains a hard sell for the Court’s outreach to local populations. The concept of a hierarchy of crimes remains in people’s minds. People still don’t feel the impact of child soldiering; in the Court’s outreach, it should be made clear that the impact is beyond the single child or his family. The duty to protect the child is not the sole responsibility of just his family or community, it is a duty for all people and institutions, and it is in that capacity that the ICC has the mandate.

The Lubanga trial should have given any child the hope that change is coming into their life. Human rights activists would agree that the Lubanga trial is the result of the engagement of the international community to hear the voices of the voiceless in the call for justice, but also we can agree that there’s a long way to go to achieve peace.
For the children, I think they would agree also that the International Criminal Court has given them the opportunity to use the power of their story, the power of their testimony, their experience to demand and obtain justice.
This is not yet concrete but in the few weeks or months ahead, this may well become a reality.

Bukeni T. Waruzi is a filmmaker and expert on child soldiers with WITNESS where he is Program Coordinator for Africa and the Middle East.

Watch the documentary video “The Lubanga Trial at the ICC” co-produced by Open Society’s Justice Initiative and WITNESS to inform the public about the trial here.

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There seems to be no end to the number of atrocities perpetrated in total impunity even though the signs of large scale attacks are clear across the world, particularly in Africa. As human rights are systematically violated, they continue to be subject to insufficient instruments of protection and insufficient definitions of crimes included in some national legislation.

It is essential to remember the 1999 controversial decision made by London judges  to extradite the late general Pinochet to Spain in order for him to be tried for crimes against humanity and genocide. At the time, it was a landmark decision for the difficult road toward the establishment of a transnational, operational and irreversible justice, evoking the concept of ” universal jurisdiction.” The effects of this have persisted for a long time. Political and judicial systems around the world have found universal jurisdiction  too aggressive a principle to develop beyond its use in London. In addition, a number of national laws, although on paper criminalize mass atrocities (genocide, crimes against humanity), give very few guarantees that they will be enforced.

At a time when the embryonic emergence of a universal justice, represented by the institution of a permanent International Criminal Court, restarts the debate on the functioning of instruments and mechanisms ensuring the application and control of international norms, the cause supported by human rights organizations representing victims and all complainants, must be regarded as sacred so that universal legality is valorized.

This cause that is often being neglected could serve as a basis for rebuilding a judicial heritage, a jurisprudence that the blissful initiative of Nuremberg had left to the whole of humanity to protect it from depraved powers and nihilists.

In order to safeguard this invaluable inheritance, it will be necessary first of all to review principles and methods of incrimination of all forms of human rights violations, in internal laws and to consider inevitable criminal provisions in Conventions and other international legal instruments so that we can finally see an end to impunity.

It is not about alleging the guilt of all those wandering monsters who flout the international community, but thinking about an innovative approach that aims to review the legal doxology and the promotion of a universal philosophical and moral ideal respecting and protecting efficiently all rights of the human being.

– Cheikh Sidya Diouf, Senegalese Counselor at Law

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On 15 June 2009, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed two counts of crimes against humanity (rape and murder) and three counts of war crimes (rape, murder and pillaging) against Jean Pierre Bemba Gombo, sending his case to trial. The crimes were allegedly committed in the Central African Republic (CAR) from 26 October 2002 to 15 March 2003.

Credit: ICC

The Chamber declined the counts of torture as a crime against humanity and as a war crime as well as the count of outrages upon personal dignity as a war crime, which were originally requested by the Prosecution.

The judges confirmed that Bemba would be criminally responsible as a commander (pursuant to article 28(a) of the Rome Statute) and not individually responsible (article 25) or as a superior (article 28(b)).

Coalition members spoke out about the decision in a press release:

“This decision is a sign of hope for victims who see it as progress toward accountability for those who once tortured them,” declared Lucille Mazangue, a lawyer of the Association of Women Lawyers in the Central African Republic and member of the Central African Coalition for the ICC. “However this is only a beginning. Both the confirmation of charges hearing and the upcoming trial have and will make clear that there must be other investigations against other individuals for the crimes committed in the CAR. ”

“Given the high incidence of rape and the extensive documentation of this crime by local women’s rights organisations, the confirmation by the Judges of charges of rape as a war crime and crime against humanity was expected and justified,” said Brigid Inder, Executive Director, Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice. “We welcome this as a first step towards justice and accountability for perpetrators of sexual violence in CAR and hope that this heralds an end to impunity for such crimes domestically,” she added.

“For justice to take hold in the region, people must truly believe in it,” said William R. Pace, convenor of the Coalition for the ICC, a civil society network in 150 countries advocating for a fair, effective and independent ICC. “This requires the Court to intensify its outreach efforts to Central African and Congolese populations-particularly the victims of the crimes for which Bemba has been charged. Furthermore, we call on the Court to maintain its commitment to fair, effective and independent trial proceedings.”

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