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Central African Republic: ICC Delegation visits CAR ; Opinion pieces

29 July 2007

Dear All,

Please find below the latest developments in relation to the Central African
Republic (CAR), specifically: an analysis of the recent visit of an
International Criminal Court team to Bangui as well as two opinion pieces on the
Court's investigation of alleged crimes of sexual violence in CAR.

Please take note of the Coalition's policy on situations before the ICC (below),
which explicitly states that the CICC will NOT take a position on potential or
pending situations before the Court. The Coalition, however, will continue to
provide the most up-to-date information about the ICC.

Regards,
Sasha Tenenbaum
CICC English Information Services Coordinator
[email protected]

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I. ICC DELEGATION VISITS CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

For more, see (in French only) "Une Equipe de la CPI a Bangui," Le confident, 21
June 2007, Divine Tékoro,
http://www.leconfident.net/UNE-EQUIPE-DE-LA-CPI-A-BANGUI_a3271.html (Unofficial
translation below provided by the CICC).

An article published in Le Confident reports that officials from the Office of
the Prosecutor met with UN officials in Bangui in the hopes of opening an ICC
office there:

"...It's a dream for many Centrafricans to at last see yesterday's
perpetrators face justice little by little...When it was announced that the ICC
was opening its investigation of the Patassé regime, there were few who believed
that anything would come of it...the investigation will certainly be long and
complex given the number of witnesses for the prosecution and the defense...For
Patassé [and his associates], the nights will now become long and sleepless. The
Networking Human Rights Defenders' report is sufficiently substantial and the
facts serious...the ICC has a procedure that its investigators will respect.
They will take the time they need. It is critical that Patassé [and his
associates] be brought to court, as is the case with Charles Taylor. These
processes, once completed, will serve as a lesson to future leaders, forcing
them to think before acting. Life and human dignity are precious jewels with
which we cannot play...."

II. OPINIONS ON ICC INVESTIGATIONS INTO ALLEGED MASS RAPES IN CENTRAL AFRICAN
REPUBLIC

i. "Rape and War: Important Changes at the ICC," a blog by Eesha Pandit, 26 June
2007, online at http://www.rhrealitycheck.org (Reproductive Health Reality
Check)

"Thankfully, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has just taken an important
step in the right direction...On May 22nd the ICC opened an investigation that,
from the inception, would place crimes of mass rape alongside those of mass
killings. The ICC's newest investigation will examine alleged war crimes and
crimes against humanity committed in the Central African Republic (CAR)... The
events in the CAR are the first case for the ICC in which the number of mass
rapes outnumbers the number of mass killings. The decision by the ICC is
significant because it marks the acceptance of an argument that activists
working for women's human rights and sexual and reproductive autonomy have made
time and again : war is a women's rights issue. Women's bodies are often the
sites at which battles are fought and boundaries are drawn. Rape and sexual
violence are persistent components of conflicts-components that are often
overlooked and not considered formally as crimes against humanity in the way
other forms of warfare are...Despite progress, several challenges remain. The
ICC must structurally adapt if it is to adequately prosecute gender-based
violence. The office of the prosecutor yet lacks a senior advisor to assist on
issues of gender-based crimes-the position was advertised but never filled.
Further, the ICC must face the problem of time. In the case of the CAR, there
has been a 4-year gap between the end of the conflict and the start of
investigations, especially pronounced since the ICC is designed to complement
existing national judicial systems and will step in only if national courts are
unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute such crimes. Additionally,
similar attempts made by international criminal tribunals for the former
Yugoslavia and Rwanda have demonstrated how tough it is to convince judges that
military and civilian leaders are accountable for crimes of sexual violence
committed when they were not physically present themselves, despite the fact
that these crimes were instituted as tactics of war under their leadership. This
move, made by the ICC last month, is both a move in the right direction and a
reminder of how far we have yet to go..."

ii. "New Attention Paid to an Old Crime of War," Alyson Zureick writing for The
American Prospect (with reporting by Amaka Megwalu), 11 June 2007,
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=new_attention_paid_to_an_old_crime_o
f_war

"Thanks to years of lobbying and action by local and international women's NGOs,
the International Criminal Court is finally beginning to prioritize prosecuting
crimes of mass rape and sexual abuse...The prosecutor's announcement was a
significant step forward for African civil society groups and their
international partners across the continent that have been working to collect
evidence and push the ICC to investigate and prosecute crimes of sexual
violence. Yet this victory has been hard won, and there is no guarantee that the
ICC's new-found focus on sexual violence will translate into long-term gains for
victims of these crimes...

Much of the testimony on sexual violence submitted to the ICC was gathered by
local NGOs like the Organization for Compassion and the Development of Families
in Distress (OCODEFAD). 'We found in 2002 that survivors of the violence had
come together to take care of the victims of sexual violence because they were
stigmatized in their communities,' reports Marceau Sivieude, the Africa Desk
Director for the prominent human rights organization Federation for Human Rights
(FIDH). 'They had also decided to gather evidence of these crimes and fight for
national justice.'

...The ICC prosecutor's focus on sexual violence in CAR has been so widely
hailed in part because, like its cousins, the international tribunals for the
former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the ICC has had a spotty record of addressing
crimes of sexual violence. Most notoriously, the office of the prosecutor failed
to bring charges of sexual crimes in its first case, that of Thomas Lubanga
Dyilo. Ample documentation by international organizations and local NGOs
indicated that the armed militia group Lubanga led had committed widespread
abuses in the DRC.

...Civil society efforts appear to have had an effect on the ICC. A second
investigation is under way in the DRC, and the ICC anticipates that a third will
be launched in the near future. It is expected that sexual violence will be
covered in the resulting indictments, said Beatrice Le Fraper Du Hellen,
director of the Jurisdiction Complementarity and Cooperation Division of the
ICC. The ICC's office of the prosecutor has made strides in investigating and
indicting crimes of sexual violence in other countries, largely thanks to
continued pressure from local and international women's NGOs.

...Despite some advances, significant gaps remain. The ICC has issued five
arrest warrants for leaders of the rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)
in Uganda, but only two have been charged with rape despite existing evidence
that indicates each of the suspects could be reasonably charged with this crime,
Brigid Inder [executive director of the Women's Initiative for Gender Justice]
said. And the ICC office of the prosecutor continues to lack a gender advisor
who would be a part of the senior decision-making team. 'The position has been
advertised in the past but never filled,' said Inder. The ICC does run a Gender
and Children Unit that undertakes psycho-social assessment of witnesses and
victims of gender based crimes, though the unit lacks the specific legal mandate
that a gender advisor would possess.

Additionally, the ICC faces procedural challenges for securing justice for those
who suffered during conflict...
...Thus, while the ICC's newly announced investigations are a step in the right
direction, the Court has its work cut out for it when it comes to actually
collecting criminal evidence and prosecuting these crimes in CAR and other
countries. Given the Court's uneven record on these issues, local and
international activists are prepared to continue lobbying hard for these crimes
to be taken seriously in the Court's proceedings.

****************************************************
CICC'S POLICY ON THE REFERRAL AND PROSECUTION OF SITUATIONS BEFORE THE
ICC:

The Coalition for the ICC is not an organ of the Court. The CICC is an
independent NGO movement dedicated to the establishment of the
International Criminal Court as a fair, effective, and independent
international organization. The Coalition will continue to provide the
most up-to-date information about the ICC and to help coordinate global
action to effectively implement the Rome Statute of the ICC. The
Coalition will also endeavor to respond to basic queries and to raise
awareness about the ICC's trigger mechanisms and procedures, as they
develop. The Coalition as a whole, and its secretariat, do not endorse
or promote specific investigations or prosecutions or take a position on
situations before the ICC. However, individual CICC members may endorse
referrals, provide legal and other support on investigations, or develop
partnerships with local and other organizations in the course of their
efforts.

Communications to the ICC can be sent to:
ICC
P.O. Box 19519
2500 CM The Hague
The Netherlands