International Justice at the ICC for Abuse Victims

Something very historical, new and encouraging is happening at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands at the opening of the trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo in January 2009. This is something that is of great interest and importance to everyone, not just to lawyers or human rights advocates - what all decent, compassionate and moral human beings ought to be. It is the first time that the victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against children have been allowed and assisted to participate in the trial against their alleged abuser to have justice done and closure to their trauma and suffering.

This is an important development and a recognition by the ICC that victims have the right to healing through seeking justice, and this is restorative justice. It is an attempt to give these victims of serious human rights violations their right to speak-out, to tell their story and to have a public voice. Crimes concealed in silence and fears will be repeated and multiplied through successive years, is a saying worth remembering.

Many including the ICC, believe that restorative justice for victims is not only a right but a healing process and essential to their future well-being. It is a right and a process of healing that is all too absent in the justice system where efforts of children's rights advocates to bring child rapists, pedophiles and abusers to justice fail all too often despite compelling and strong evidence, overwhelming as it may be, it is still “insufficient” to find probable cause.

Much too often, the child abuser is a person in ascendency and has total authority over the child and audaciously claims entitlement to use the child for his or her own selfish ends be it power grabbing, economic gain or sexual satisfaction. Tragically and shocking as it is, in many countries, including the Philippines, police and prosecutors sympathize secretly with this claim of entitlement despite the law clearly stating otherwise.

Bribery is the reward for the sympathetic police, prosecutor or even judge. If bribery does not succeed then threats of violence or career ruination can succeed. As one repentant self-confessed former prosecutor said “I reasoned to myself, why make an a enemy of this powerful vengeful man and his family, child rapist as he clearly is, nothing I can do will undo his crime and help the child but expose her to ridicule in public. Besides, prosecuting him will bring ruin on me and my family. Instead of grueling years in court I can make him suffer by demanding a big payment to dismiss it”.

The court in The Hague is setting a international standard that counters this self-indulgent and corrupt way of thinking and behaving. Restorative justice at the ICC began on 29th January, 2007 during the preliminary hearings into the allegations against Lubanga Dyilo. The victims were represented through lawyers and forceful and strong opening and closing statements on behalf of the victims were made.

Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a Congolese citizen is believed to have founded the political party named The Union of Patriotic Congolese (UPC) and an armed force called the Patriotic Force for the Liberation of the Congo (PFLC).

He was arrested on March 17, 2006 on an international arrest warrant and charged with the war crimes of forcing children to be child soldiers and training them to shoot, kill, maim and torture others even there own families and villagers. It is a serious international crime for which he could get 30 years in prison or more.

It also places crimes against children on a high pedestal at the ICC and human rights groups are lobbying with international prosecutors to investigate crimes like the systematic abuse and trafficking of children and government officials that use assassination as a political tool. The success of the ICC in bringing charges and getting arrest warrants against the President of Sudan and his cabinet minister as I wrote recently is encouraging progress. It means one day, they can and hopefully will be brought to justice at the ICC. The child victims will be there to testify and the relatives of the victims of the assassination policy. Hiding behind high office only makes the offenders all the more visible.