At last week’s annual meeting of the American Society of International Law, participants were treated to a luncheon presentation by Fatou Bensouda (right), Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and candidate for the top job when Luis Moreno Ocampo’s term expires next year. Bensouda presented some opening remarks and then was ably questioned by our own Diane Marie Amann, as well as a few audience members.In her luncheon dialogue, which is available for web viewing here, Bensouda began by providing an overview of the work of the International Criminal Court Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) in the most active situations before the Court. Illustrating her talk was the map at bottom, which depicts the 114 states parties to the Rome Statute in dark blue, signatory states in light blue, selected situations in yellow, and preliminary examinations in green.
With regard to Libya, Bensouda stated that the OTP has notified those with formal and de facto authority, including Gaddafi, that their crimes will be investigated. The OTP has made clear that warning civilians to leave before attacking civilian areas does not relieve those involved of criminal responsibility. Bensouda emphasized that the OTP is seeking to be as transparent as possible in its dealings with the Libyan leadership.
In discussing the various situations, Bensouda revealed her vision of the ICC’s role in the global legal order: to prevent crimes through deterrence and by “sending messages” about the types of offenses the international community will not tolerate.
In discussing the OTP’s work with regard to the post-election violence in Kenya, for example, Bensouda asserted that the prosecutions will prevent crimes by “sending the message” that those who gain power by violence will be held accountable.
Similarly, she stated that the prosecution of those who killed peacekeepers in Sudan “sends an important message that the Court supports peacekeeping;” and the trial of Thomas Lubanga for recruiting child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo “signals” the seriousness of that crime.
Bensouda also mentioned a situation in which the OTP is seeking to prevent crimes through incapacitation of key actors. She asserted that the arrest last fall of Callixte Mbarushimana, leader of the rebel group the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, was an effort to “destabilize” that organization and thus prevent crimes in Eastern Congo.
Bensouda also described the OTP’s approach to deciding which situations of alleged international crimes the ICC should investigate. The process of determining whether to pursue a formal investigation has become known as the “preliminary examination.”
Last October, the OTP issued a Draft Policy Paper on Preliminary Examinations. Bensouda promised that the final policy statement would be issued soon. Under Article 53 of the ICC Statute, the preliminary examination phase requires the OTP to determine whether a “reasonable basis” exists to proceed in a situation. This “reasonable basis” analysis has three components. It requires the OTP to assess whether:
► (1) crimes within the ICC’s jurisdiction appear to have been committed;
► (2) potential cases within the situation would be admissible (that is, they are sufficiently grave and meet the complementarity requirement that no State with jurisdiction is already acting in good faith); and
► (3) prosecution would not contravene the “interests of justice.”
The most interesting thing about the OTP’s draft policy on preliminary examinations is that it purports to disavow any role for prosecutorial discretion in deciding which situations to investigate. Whereas an earlier draft policy paper talked about the OTP “selecting” situations to investigate, the 2010 paper takes the position that the OTP must investigate if the statutory criteria are met.
Bensouda’s comments confirmed this approach. She noted that when the office began operations, Colombia and the Democratic Republic of Congo were the “gravest” situations within the Court’s jurisdiction; however, no investigation was opened in Colombia because that country was pursuing some national prosecutions. She also reiterated the OTP’s position that no investigation was undertaken with regard to the war crimes committed by British soldiers in Iraq because they were not sufficiently grave to be admissible.
As I have written elsewhere, this assessment seems mistaken – surely war crimes resulting in the deaths of even a small number of civilians are admissible before the ICC. The decision not to investigate the Iraq situation makes more sense if articulated as an exercise of the prosecutor’s discretion to focus on the most serious situations available. The OTP’s current policy, however, seems to preclude such an approach. Moreover, when questioned about the Court’s selection criteria, Bensouda seemed to admit that gravity is sometimes primarily a matter of numbers of victims – as in the Iraq situation – and at other times is conceived as relating more to the nature and impact of the crimes – in particular, what “signal” a particular prosecution is going to send.
Finally, Bensouda stated that there is no timeline for concluding preliminary examinations, and opined that the act of engaging in a preliminary examination itself has a deterrent impact. Echoing her current boss, Bensouda also emphasized that the OTP “has a legal mandate with no flexibility to adjust to political considerations,” a position that has been challenged recently by writers such as Bill Schabas and James Goldston.
Bensouda concluded that the ICC represents a “paradigm shift” from the Westphalian model of state sovereignty to one of international scrutiny and the rule of law.
In the questioning, Bensouda was pressed hardest on the problems associated with the ICC’s exclusive prosecution of African cases. She noted that such criticisms often overlook the victims of the African conflicts, and stated that she would “not apologize” for seeking to give victims a voice. She also sought to justify the emphasis on African situations by reference to the requirements of the ICC Statute, in particular the principle of complementarity. She noted that the OTP always encourages national proceedings but that unfortunately those are “not happening in Africa.” She reminded the audience that three of the African situations were referred by the affected governments themselves.
Nonetheless, when asked whether the ICC’s focus on Africa mitigates in favor of an African as the next prosecutor Bensouda, a native of the Gambia, was (unsurprisingly) supportive!
