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Eugène Bakama Bope is the President of Club des amis du droit du Congo (CAD).

The 11th Anniversary of the Rome Statute comes on the heels of the heated, anti-ICC meeting of the African Union earlier this month in Sirte, Libya.

There, some African heads of state adopted a resolution suspending their cooperation with the ICC in retaliation for the Court’s arrest warrant for Omar Hassan

Ahmad Al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.This latest arm wresting over the ICC at the AU only draws attention to the fact that African governments—unlike their counterparts in Europe and Latin American—are not taking their obligations seriously when it comes to prosecuting grave crimes. For this reason alone, the role of the ICC is fully justified.

Europe experienced the Nuremberg trials. The Nazi collaborators continued to be judged up to the present day (see the latest trial of John Demjanuk who was transferred to Germany). In South America, there have been trials of the military junta in Argentina (trial led by current ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo).

What example has Africa set for prosecuting grave crimes in its national courts? Before blaming the ICC of unfairly targeting Africans, African governments would be wise to ask themselves what their own track record is for prosecuting atrocity crimes. More specifically, look at the Hissène Habré case: Senegal did not want to try him or extradite him, but Belgium asked for his extradition.

Recently, I was shocked by Senegalese President Wade’s hypocrisy. Wade, who organized the Hissène Habré case and was one of the first to speak out to the media following the issuance of warrant for Al-Bashir, has reportedly said the ICC only judges Africans. This comes at a time when his country has shown itself incapable of administering justice on its own soil and around such a critical trial.

The most heinous crimes are committed by state authorities, who, occasionally take over internal justice systems. It is one of the reasons to advance international justice.

Finally, there is room to question the prosecutor’s strategy. How, we can ask ourselves, after all these years of investigations can he still be so far from fingering those most culpable for the atrocity crimes in eastern DRC.

Clearly, both sides can do better.

Please Note: This is an unofficial translation by the CICC Secretariat from the original French.

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Raj Kumar Siwako is the Secretary General of FOHRID, Human Rights and Democratic Forum in Kathmandu, Nepal. fohrid@wlink.com.np

Today, on 17 July 2009, representatives of the human rights community organized a peaceful sit-in program on the occasion of the International Justice Day and 11th anniversary of Rome Statute for 45 minutes today at Shantibatika, Ratnapark (Katmandu, Nepal). Participants of the sit-in, organized by Citizen’s Task Force to Combat Impunity, criticized the government for not acceding to the Rome Statute, especially given that the then-reinstituted Parliament passed a resolution to accede on 25 July 2006. NGOs present were vocal in their demand for the Government of Nepal to join the International Criminal Court at once as part of larger effort to establish a just society.
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Erna Paris is the author of The Sun Climbs Slow: The International Criminal Court and the Struggle for Justice. Please visit her website at www.ernaparis.com - erna.paris@ernaparis.com

Back in 1990, the year before the Soviet Union imploded ushering in a new international order featuring a single superpower, the idea that one might soon (in historical terms) celebrate something called International Justice Day would have been laughable. Great powers set the rules. And they usually embraced impunity, at least for themselves.
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Lucille Mazangue is a lawyer and human rights activist with the Association des Femmes Juristes in the Central African Republic (CAR)

11 years ago to the day, the ICC was created during a conference held in Rome. Some 120 governments came together to build a Court capable of trying individuals for the most serious crimes known to human kind: war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
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Christian Hemedi is the Coordinator of the DRC Coalition for the ICC and President of the Association for the Renaissance of Human Rights in the Congo (ARC-ONDH) arc_asbl@yahoo.fr
Beginning in 1998, the Democratic Republic of Congo found itself on the precipice of a war—sometimes referred to as the “African World War”—that would devastate the country and involve more than eight foreign armies. In July of the same year, the Rome Statute was born.
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Julie Hotte was intern at the CICC Communications section.

The time is now for Central African Republic victims to obtain justice. Nearly six months after the confirmation of charges hearing against Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, former leader of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), the International Criminal Court (ICC) decided to send him to trial

Looking back to that hearing, it interesting to see how each party tried to present its view on the allegations of crimes against Bemba.

The Prosecution tried to demonstrate Bemba’s responsibility in the commission of crimes allegedly perpetrated by his armed group, the Mouvement pour la Liberation du Congo (MLC): ” Jean-Pierre Bemba wanted to traumatize and to terrorize the population and to make them unwilling to support the rebels, and to do this [...], he chose rape as his main weapon”.

The Defense, by arguing that Bemba was not in the best position to stop such atrocities from happening because “he was not in a position to have perfect knowledge of the events”, implicitly acknowledged the commission of such crimes.

As for the legal representatives for the victims, they reminded the importance of justice not only for victims but also for sustainable peace asserting that impunity in the Central African Republic (CAR): “would not allow for durable peace because there is no peace if there is no justice”. They concluded that “the Court is the last resort for these victims”.

On 15 June, the ICC judges came to the conclusion that there was sufficient evidence to believe that Bemba is criminally responsible as a military commander for the crimes committed by his troops from 26 October 2002 to 15 March 2003 in CAR. They decided to send him to trial. Earlier this year, ICC Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, reportedly explained to the media that Jean-Pierre Bemba could face an imprisonment of at least 30 years if found guilty.

The starting date for the trial has not yet been fixed and the numerous victims of these sexual acts of violence will still have to wait before being able to think of obtaining reparation, if such reparation is possible. Whether or not reparations are possible for the victims of Bemba’s crimes, one thing is for certain: these people will carry physical and emotional scars for the rest of their lives. Perhaps, the fact that Bemba is finally being brought to justice will give these victims a much needed step towards the long road to recovery.

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