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RIGHTS: International Court Boosts Justice for Women

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Sep 10 2004 (IPS) - The appointment of a deputy prosecutor to the International Criminal Court is expected to strengthen the court’s commitment to justice for women.

The selection of Fatou Bensouda from The Gambia out of an initial pool of 198 applicants will strengthen the court investigations under way in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, rights activists say.

”She is a woman who has worked among women who have been violated,” Ruth Ochieng from the Women’s International Cross-Cultural Exchange in Uganda told IPS on phone from The Hague.

Bensouda was appointed at a meeting of the Assembly of State Parties held this week at The Hague where the International Criminal Court (ICC) is located. The assembly was attended by officials from 80 of the 94 countries that are a party to the ICC.

Bensouda won the election in a secret ballot at the assembly, securing 58 out of 78 votes. In her most recent assignment she served as legal adviser and trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

Earlier in 2002 she was employed as general manager at the International Bank for Commerce and Industry in The Gambia – a job she took after having worked as a private legal practitioner in Banjul, the country’s capital.

Bensouda has also served as deputy director of public prosecution in The Gambia, a tiny West African country with a population of about 1.5 million, which won independence from Britain in 1965.

The assembly at The Hague voted her to the post for a period of nine years, the maximum allowed by the Rome Statute under which the ICC was set up. She will now work along with ICC prosecutor Moreno Ocampo of Argentina and deputy prosecutor for investigations Serge Brammertz of Belgium.

The ICC investigations into violations during the internal conflicts in Uganda and in the Democratic Republic of Congo both indicate just how necessary it is for a woman to be closely involved with the investigation and prosecution, Ochieng said.

”In internal conflicts the ones who remain behind are usually the women,” she said. ”Men are either on the frontline or go into hiding. We have seen how many women were violated in Congo.”

In these areas ”women have been gang-raped and their reproductive organs mutilated,” she said. ”There are women with constantly leaking urine and faeces, women whose lips, nose, ears have been cut off. Women have been mutilated by landmines because they have had to go out looking for food.”

Women who have faced sexual violence ”do not feel comfortable being interviewed by a male,” Ochieng said. ”The image of the perpetrator transfers to the man doing the interviewing.” In such circumstances the woman deputy prosecutor ”will bring new input into the prosecution”.

Brigid Inder, executive director of the Women’s Initiative for Gender Justice based in The Hague said: ”Fatou Bensouda brings much-needed gender and regional integrity to the office of the Prosecutor, and as head of prosecutions it will be her job to ensure that gender-based crimes and sexual violence are effectively prosecuted.”

The Coalition for the International Criminal Court, a grouping of more than 2,000 non-governmental organisations that support rights and the ICC also welcomed the appointment.

Coalition member Christian Hemedi, chairperson of the Association for the Renewal of Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo said: ”In light of the first two cases which involve African countries, Ms Bensouda’s invaluable experience as an attorney in The Gambia and at the ICTR will be a truly great asset to the court now that investigations are under way.”

But the welcome is tinged also with growing concern over the limitations of the ICC that are beginning to surface as its investigations proceed.

Prime among these is concern that while prosecuting some people at The Hague, the court will be unable to communicate justice to the tens of thousands who have been victims of injustice within areas where these cases arose.

”It is important for the prosecutors to link up with their counterparts in countries and with civil society organisations to get a better idea what is happening,” Ochieng said. ”And it must be able to tell affected women in these areas what the ICC is, and how it will bring justice to them.”

Civil society groups are saying in effect that the deputy prosecutor needs to go to where the victims are, and not simply operate out of The Hague.

”Only if that is done effectively will you have a mechanism in place that will address the issues,” Ochieng said. The deputy prosecutor will be effective ”if she goes and talks to people and to civil society working with people on the ground, and then comes up with concrete findings. Otherwise the ICC will be something that the concerned people will not understand.”

Inder added: ”I think too that Ms Bensouda understands that for the court to have any meaning, justice must belong to the people most affected by war and armed conflict.”