Fear and outcry as Burundi votes to leave ICC | First ICC victims’ reparations on the way
Fear and outcry as Burundi votes to leave ICC
Last week’s vote in the Burundi parliament to begin the process of becoming the first country to withdraw from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has prompted international outcry and fears of an escalating conflict in the country.
“This vote is a terrible setback to a country that is facing a serious violent and political crisis. It comes at the very moment that thousands of Burundians thirst for fair, effective and independent criminal justice – as demonstrated by the families of victims that broke their silence and seizedthe ICC when their cries for justice were ignored by the national justice system,” said Lambert Nigarura, chairman, Burundi national coalition for the ICC.
Civil society, African parliamentarians, United Nations representatives, and government officials have expressed alarm at the move.
In April this year, the ICC prosecutor opened a preliminary examination into the situation in Burundi to determine whether reports of grave international crimes since April last year warrant the opening of a full investigation.
A range of crimes are alleged to have been committed during the conflict between supporters of President Pierre Nkunrunziza and those who believe that his re-election in July 2015 for a third term violated the nation’s constitution.
United Nations officials have said that violence in the country is in danger of escalating into “atrocity crimes” and raised fears of an ethnic conflict reminiscent of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
While there has been a push among some African countries to withdraw from the ICC, no state has actually done so. This year’s meeting of the African Union in fact saw several states oppose a motion for withdrawal en masse, the first time in many years the regional body had failed to do so. Meanwhile, only this month Gabon asked for ICC assistance with crimes committed in the context of electoral violence.
Under the Rome Statute, full withdrawal comes into effect one year after notification to the UN treaty office. An ICC spokesperson clarified that “ICC [w]ithdrawal does not affect the past obligation of a country to cooperate with any ongoing proceedings or investigation.”
Reaction: Burundi votes to leave the ICC
First ICC victims’ reparations on the way
In March 2012, former rebel commander Thomas Lubanga became the first person ever to be convicted by the ICC – for enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 years and using them to participate actively in hostilities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The conviction triggered the first ICC reparations, which this week saw the start of long-awaited hearings in The Hague.
Because the ICC found Lubanga indigent and unable to cover a complete victim reparations award, the Trust Fund for Victims (TFV) proposed spending € 1 million over a span of three years to support affected communities in eastern DRC. The amount is not yet fixed and is subject to change depending on Lubanga’s final financial liability.
The plan, which took four years to reach this stage, outlines that as funds are limited victims will not receive individual reparations as previously expected.
Also raised at the initial hearing was persisting concern over interference in Ituri to deter victims of Lubanga’s crimes from participating in the reparations program.
“Mr Lubanga is currently completing his sentence within the DRC and his return to the country has been highly disturbing for victims of his crimes and presents an additional element with respect to actual or perceived security risks in Ituri and other locations to which victims of his crimes have relocated,” said Brigid Inder, executive director of the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice (WIGJ).
Women’s Initiatives, which has monitored the Lubanga case since its early stages and made observations at last week’s hearing, suggested that the TFV’s plan address these concerns and be implemented over a five-year rather than three-year period.
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