(Delighted to welcome back alumna Margaret deGuzman, who contributes this guest post to IntLawGrrls' series on the ICC Kampala Conference)KAMPALA, Uganda – As others have noted in this series of posts, the Review Conference of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court under way in Kampala has devoted two days to a “stocktaking” exercise. The idea was to review key issues in international criminal justice with a view to enhancing the work of the ICC. These portions of the Review Conference felt a lot like law school panel discussions, except that after the panelists spoke they took questions and comments from representatives of states and NGOs rather than from faculty and students.
Two of the stocktaking topics – peace/justice and complementarity – raised important issues relevant to the advisability and legitimacy of ICC prosecutions in particular situations. The peace/justice discussion considered whether it is ever appropriate for justice to be sacrificed in the name of peace (a question on which IntLawGrrl Kathleen A. Doty yesterday posted with regard to Darfur). The complementarity session, meanwhile, concerned how the task of providing justice should be allocated between international and domestic courts. This post provides some details on those discussions, as well as a few thoughts about what was left out.
Peace/justice
Setting the stage for the peace/justice session was Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth session, who questioned the common assumption that peace and justice are in conflict. As evidence of a more harmonious relationship between these goals, Roth cited the claim by Richard Goldstone, the 1st Prosecutor of the ad hoc tribunals, that the Dayton peace accord would not have been possible without the issuance of arrest warrants of Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić. Roth also noted that many believe the peace process was assisted both by the indictments of Charles Taylor, then President of Liberia, by the Special Court for Sierra Leone and by the ICC’s pursuit of the leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. In contrast, Roth noted that amnesty agreements have often failed to secure lasting peace, citing Sierra Leone and Angola as examples.
David Tolbert, formerly Deputy Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and now head of of the International Center for Transitional Justice, opined that amnesty is now entirely off the table in conflict resolution efforts. Tolbert noted, however, that prosecutors must be sensitive to the political situation on the ground – although politics can’t impact the decision to prosecute they might affect the timing of prosecutions.
Providing a somewhat different perspective was James LeMoyne, an experienced conflict mediator. LeMoyne emphasized the importance of stopping conflict to advance human rights. He recalled the threats of commanders with whom he negotiated in El Salvador that any talk of prosecution would lead directly to more killing. LeMoyne also pointed out that many of the people with whom he negotiates have not even heard of the ICC.
Barney Afako, a Ugandan human rights lawyer, cautioned that the LRA arrest warrants may have prevented an agreement to end the war, while Cambodian activist and Khmer Rouge survivor Youk Chhang asserted that victims always want justice. State representatives also expressed conflicting views on the peace/justice debate.
While many delegates, including representatives of Congo and the European Parliament, emphasized the importance of justice for peace, China expressed the view that the two sometimes conflict and that the ICC should be more careful about exercising jurisdiction in ongoing conflicts. Iran also spoke out in favor of amnesty in some circumstances.
In sum, the discussion surfaced many of the crucial and controversial elements of the peace/justice debate. At the same time, there was little concrete discussion of the ICC’s contributions thus far to peace or justice, and even less progress in resolving how the ICC should approach the selection of situations and cases in ongoing conflicts.
Complementarity
The complementarity discussion was kicked off by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay (right) (prior posts), who raised concerns about the ICC’s policy of focusing on the most responsible perpetrators. Pillay worried that the policy may leave states with the impression that national prosecutorial obligations are also limited to high-level perpetrators. Pillay also expressed the hope that the ICC’s complementarity regime would promote respect for the ability of states to conduct trials for international crimes; in so doing, she stated that the ad hoc tribunals have not always shown such respect. She implicitly criticized decisions by which the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (of which she previously served as President, before becoming an ICC Judge and, subsequently, the High Commissioner) refused to transfer cases to the domestic courts, refusals based on the ICTR's conclusion that domestic trials would not meet international standards.
The complementarity discussion was kicked off by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay (right) (prior posts), who raised concerns about the ICC’s policy of focusing on the most responsible perpetrators. Pillay worried that the policy may leave states with the impression that national prosecutorial obligations are also limited to high-level perpetrators. Pillay also expressed the hope that the ICC’s complementarity regime would promote respect for the ability of states to conduct trials for international crimes; in so doing, she stated that the ad hoc tribunals have not always shown such respect. She implicitly criticized decisions by which the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (of which she previously served as President, before becoming an ICC Judge and, subsequently, the High Commissioner) refused to transfer cases to the domestic courts, refusals based on the ICTR's conclusion that domestic trials would not meet international standards.Two national court judges involved in adjudicating international crimes provided interesting perspectives from the national justice side. Justice Dan Akiiki-Kiiza of Uganda, along with a Congolese counterpart, emphasized that their national systems are cooperating with the ICC. Interestingly, however, Justice Kiiza also stated that the Ugandan system is both willing and able to try all suspected criminals – in effect, saying that Uganda doesn’t really need the ICC.
The state interventions after the panel were mostly pledges of support for the notions that states must take primary responsibility for prosecuting international crimes and reiterations of the view that it is appropriate for both the ICC and states to assist one another in developing such capacity.
Some states, including Spain and Germany, seemed concerned about the ICC’s policy of “positive complementarity,” whereby it seeks to assist states in bolstering their ability to prosecute international crimes. These states were concerned that positive complementarity implies some additional bureaucracy outside the confines of the Rome Statute. The German representative noted that complementarity is a negative concept in Article 17 of the Rome Statute, which precludes the ICC from intervening when a relevant state is doing so genuinely.
At the end of the session, however, ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo (near left) addressed the issue. (photo credit) In Moreno-Ocampo's view, the statutory basis for “positive complementarity” is not Article 17, but rather Article 93(10), which authorizes the Court to provide various kinds of assistance to states. Moreno-Ocampo assured the states that no additional bureaucracy is needed for such assistance, since the ICC already possesses the relevant information and materials by virtue of its regular activities.Finally, the ICC President, Judge Sang-Hyun Song (above, far left), said that in his view, complementarity is either a rule of customary international law or close to attaining that status.
In all, the complementarity discussion was fairly uncontroversial – certainly less so than peace/justice. Like in the earlier session, though, there were little in the way of concrete suggestions concerning the appropriate relationship between the ICC and national courts. A number of difficult issues remained just under the surface of the conversation – including whether it is appropriate for the ICC to prosecute “self-referred” cases if the referring government is perfectly capable of doing the job itself.
Conclusion
In all, the Review Conference’s stocktaking on peace/justice and complementarity was more interesting for its tone than its content. Unlike at the 1998 Rome Conference, where many states expressed skepticism or even outright hostility toward the notion of international criminal justice, those that spoke in Kampala were overwhelmingly supportive of the enterprise. Even non-party states that have traditionally portrayed the ICC as an improper assault on sovereignty were careful to couch their comments as broadly supportive of international justice efforts.
In all, the Review Conference’s stocktaking on peace/justice and complementarity was more interesting for its tone than its content. Unlike at the 1998 Rome Conference, where many states expressed skepticism or even outright hostility toward the notion of international criminal justice, those that spoke in Kampala were overwhelmingly supportive of the enterprise. Even non-party states that have traditionally portrayed the ICC as an improper assault on sovereignty were careful to couch their comments as broadly supportive of international justice efforts.
Anyone who was hoping for a more substantive and introspective discussion of the legitimacy of ICC action was, however, disappointed.
