Unfinished Business RIGHTS Closing Gaps in the Selection of ICC Cases WATCH
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International Justice HUMAN Unfinished Business RIGHTS Closing Gaps in the Selection of ICC Cases WATCH Unfinished Business Closing Gaps in the Selection of ICC Cases Copyright © 2011 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 1-56432-810-4 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor New York, NY 10118-3299 USA Tel: +1 212 290 4700, Fax: +1 212 736 1300 [email protected] Saga Building Damascus Road, Saifi District 11-4399 Riad El Solh Beirut, Lebanon Tel: Tel: +961-1-217670, Fax: +961-1-217672 Poststraße 4-5 10178 Berlin, Germany Tel: +49 30 2593 06-10, Fax: +49 30 2593 0629 [email protected] Avenue des Gaulois, 7 1040 Brussels, Belgium Tel: + 32 (2) 732 2009, Fax: + 32 (2) 732 0471 [email protected] 51, Avenue Blanc 1202 Geneva, Switzerland Tel: +41 22 738 0481, Fax: +41 22 738 1791 [email protected] First Floor, Audrey House 16-20 Ely Place London EC1N 6SN, UK Tel: +44 20 7713 1995, Fax: +44 20 7713 1800 [email protected] 27 Rue de Lisbonne 75008 Paris, France Tel: +33 (1)43 59 55 35, Fax: +33 (1) 43 59 55 22 [email protected] 1st Fl, Wilds View Isle of Houghton, Boundary Road Parktown, 2198 South Africa 1630 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 500 Washington, DC 20009 USA Tel: +1 202 612 4321, Fax: +1 202 612 4333 [email protected] Web Site Address: http://www.hrw.org SEPTEMBER 2011 1-56432-810-4 Unfinished Business Closing Gaps in the Selection of ICC Cases Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 I. Meaningful, Impartial, and Independent Justice ............................................................... 4 Meaningful Justice ....................................................................................................................4 Impartiality ............................................................................................................................... 5 Independence ......................................................................................................................... 6 II. Democratic Republic of Congo ........................................................................................ 9 Following the Chain of Command in Ituri ................................................................................. 12 Investigating All Parties to the Conflict in the Kivus ................................................................. 16 Ensuring Justice for Victims .............................................................................................. 18 Targeting Government Crimes Key to Safeguarding Perceptions of Independence .............. 19 Upholding Impartiality ...................................................................................................... 19 III. Uganda ....................................................................................................................... 23 Investigation of Ugandan Forces ............................................................................................. 24 Responding to New Victims of the Lord’s Resistance Army ...................................................... 29 IV. Central African Republic .............................................................................................. 31 V. Darfur ........................................................................................................................... 34 VI. Kenya .......................................................................................................................... 37 Ensuring Accountability for Police Abuses ............................................................................... 39 Expanding Investigation to Mt. Elgon ...................................................................................... 42 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 46 Recommendations to the ICC Office of the Prosecutor ....................................................... 48 Democratic Republic of Congo ............................................................................................... 48 Uganda ................................................................................................................................. 48 Central African Republic ........................................................................................................ 48 Darfur, Sudan ........................................................................................................................ 49 Kenya .................................................................................................................................... 49 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................ 50 Introduction In March 2011 the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno- Ocampo, opened the court’s latest investigation—in Libya. The previous month, the United Nations (UN) Security Council had referred the situation in Libya to the ICC prosecutor by a unanimous vote in the midst of a brutal crackdown by government forces against protesters. In June 2011, the prosecutor filed an application before an ICC pre-trial chamber to open an investigation into the situation in Côte d’Ivoire. This followed a request from the new Ivorian president, Alassane Ouattara, that the ICC investigate crimes committed in the wake of the country’s November 2010 disputed election. If the prosecutor’s application is granted, Côte d’Ivoire will become the ICC’s seventh “situation under investigation.” For a court less than a decade old, the ICC is already managing a large investigative docket and caseload. Libya and Côte d’Ivoire follow the opening of investigations in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), northern Uganda, the Darfur region of Sudan, Central African Republic (CAR), and Kenya. The recent additions of Kenya (where investigations opened in March 2010) and Libya, and the likely addition of Côte d’Ivoire in the near future, mark a considerable increase in the workload of the court. Severe government crackdowns continue against protesters in a number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa. While none of these countries are party to the Rome Statute of the ICC and therefore remain for the time being beyond its reach absent a UN Security Council referral, it seems likely that demands for justice in the region will grow. Eight other situations—Colombia, Afghanistan, Guinea, Honduras, Nigeria, Georgia, South Korea, and Gaza—already await determination by the ICC prosecutor as to whether he will seek to open investigations. Some, like Colombia and Afghanistan, have been under analysis for several years. Increasing demands on the ICC come at a critical juncture for the court. Moreno-Ocampo was elected by the ICC states parties to serve a term of nine years and took office in June 2003. His term has less than a year to run. ICC states parties are expected to elect a new prosecutor at their next annual session in December 2011. As Moreno-Ocampo prepares to leave office and hand over to a new prosecutor, states parties must confront the challenge of equipping the ICC to meet heightened expectations. As the court is asked to take on more situations, there is a risk that the ICC and its prosecutor will increasingly “hollow out” the court’s approach to its situations under 1 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | SEPTEMBER 2011 investigation. That is, the ICC may take on more situations, but do less and less in each situation to square demand with limited resources—especially in difficult economic times. In fact, experience in the ICC’s existing situations shows just the opposite is required— more investigations and prosecutions are needed in each of these situations in order to deliver on the court's mandate. This will likely require additional resources, but, more fundamentally, it will require a shift in the practice of the Office of the Prosecutor. The task of the ICC’s first prosecutor to build a credible new institution, while also getting to work in bringing perpetrators of the world’s worst crimes to justice in the sui generis context of the Rome Statute, was always going to be a difficult one. Moreno- Ocampo has made important progress. Investigations in six countries have yielded arrest warrants for 17 individuals and voluntary summonses to appear for nine others. In August 2011, the court heard closing arguments in the ICC’s first trial, that of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a former Congolese militia leader, and trials are ongoing in two additional cases. The Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) has also issued a number of important policy and strategic documents to guide its work. However, under Moreno-Ocampo the ICC’s investigations and prosecutions have failed to demonstrate coherent and effective strategies for delivering meaningful justice to affected communities. Such strategies would, in the view of Human Rights Watch, require multiple investigations, deeply rooted in the country-specific context and designed to bring to trial those most responsible for the gravest crimes representative of underlying patterns of ICC crimes. While the ICC may not act alone—and indeed ICC prosecutions should be supplemented by additional national prosecutions—its intervention comes with high expectations from affected communities. As the leading edge of international justice, the ICC has a responsibility to meet those expectations.