{"title":"African Philosophical Contributions to International Criminal Law","authors":"Evelyne Owiye Asaala","doi":"10.1163/15718123-bja10176","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15718123-bja10176","url":null,"abstract":"This article displays the various ways that African philosophies have made a contribution to international criminal law. It shows that African philosophies have, to a certain extent, influenced the manner in which post-conflict African states as well as the African Union (<jats:sc>au</jats:sc>) address accountability for grave breaches of international law. This influence is evidenced in the setting up of traditional African approaches to accountability for international crimes in post-conflict African states as well as in some of the <jats:sc>au</jats:sc> initiatives which address accountability for grave breaches. The article begins by contextualizing the topic within traditional African cultures through a historical analysis of the practices, concepts and institutions that governed criminal accountability as well as an analysis of the African philosophies upon which these practices, concepts and institutions were anchored. It continues with the concern of ‘how’ and ‘to what extent’ African philosophies have influenced international criminal law. Moreover, it considers some of the controversial areas of international criminal law in which African philosophies are overlooked, despite their potential to make a valuable contribution. This section is supported by the belief that a <jats:strike />combined approach to international criminal law, of both traditional African and Western concepts, offers a better solution to the current impasse experienced in certain areas.","PeriodicalId":55966,"journal":{"name":"International Criminal Law Review","volume":"134 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140197419","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pain as the Essence of Torture: Exploring the Characteristics and Requirements of the Element of “Pain or Suffering” in the Crime Against Humanity of Torture","authors":"Simone Antonio Luciano","doi":"10.1163/15718123-bja10174","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15718123-bja10174","url":null,"abstract":"Pain is the very essence of torture. This article explores the element of “pain or suffering” in the crime against humanity of torture and contributes to the existing literature by identifying the characteristics and requirements of such element within international criminal law. In particular, it examines, discusses and compares the case law of the International Criminal Tribunals in order to determine the specific characteristics that pain must possess for the mistreatment to qualify as torture as well as the required level of severity of pain and the subjective and objective criteria used for the assessment of such severity. At the same time, it also explores the case law of the <jats:sc>echr</jats:sc> on torture and compares the approach of this Court towards this crime with the approach of the International Criminal Tribunals to determine the extent of the <jats:sc>echr</jats:sc>’s contribution to the definition of torture in international criminal law.","PeriodicalId":55966,"journal":{"name":"International Criminal Law Review","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139755321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Post-Ongwen Case Period and the Reconciliation Process in Northern Uganda: Local Communities as a Site of Knowledge","authors":"Christelle Molima Bameka","doi":"10.1163/15718123-bja10173","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15718123-bja10173","url":null,"abstract":"By providing victims with more space in the <jats:italic>Ongwen</jats:italic> case, the International Criminal Court (<jats:sc>icc</jats:sc>) has significantly contributed to the healing of the trauma and community reconciliation in northern Uganda. That said, this court has also raised issues that could affect local efforts to achieve peace, namely the positioning of victims of child soldiers <jats:italic>vis-à-vis</jats:italic> criminal child soldiers. Drawing on qualitative data collected through focus group discussions with some community members from locations under investigation by the <jats:sc>icc</jats:sc>, this sociolegal study examines the victims’ narratives about child soldiers and the different ideas of human rights that emerge. Then, it explores how these ideas may shape future transitional justice mechanisms designed in the global sphere. Finally, it discusses the extent to which they may impact the relevance of current justice initiatives. Overall, this paper analyzes the substantive effect of victim participation in the <jats:italic>Ongwen</jats:italic> case on local peacebuilding initiatives in northern Uganda.","PeriodicalId":55966,"journal":{"name":"International Criminal Law Review","volume":"93 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139679336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ecocide as a New Core Crime in the Rome Statute? An Ultima Ratio Lens on Legal Policy in International Criminal Law","authors":"Sarah Zink","doi":"10.1163/15718123-bja10170","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15718123-bja10170","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The protection of the environment is currently of the uppermost importance and all legal fields have to contribute to this goal. This includes criminal law, both on a national and an international level. The debate in international criminal law focusses on a proposal to introduce a new core crime of “ecocide” to the Rome Statute. Much has been contributed to this debate, and often the ultima ratio approach has been mentioned in this context. However, the contents of this principle remain vague. In my article, I assess the ultima ratio principle for international criminal law and apply it to the discussion about the introduction of a new core crime of ecocide to the Rome Statute. My assessment reveals that under the current circumstances, this cannot be considered a good fit. Rather, alternatives exist that are to be expected to serve the urgent interest of protecting the natural environment better.</p>","PeriodicalId":55966,"journal":{"name":"International Criminal Law Review","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138819366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Culture and the Illusion of Self-Evidence: Spiritual Beliefs in the Ongwen Trial","authors":"Adina-Loredana Nistor","doi":"10.1163/15718123-bja10169","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15718123-bja10169","url":null,"abstract":"<p>By definition, criminal trials are set to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused. In this process, judges are tasked with assessing not only evidence that presents itself in quantifiable forms, but also as personal experiences. In the case of Dominic Ongwen, a former child soldier and commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army (<span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">lra</span>), the issue of spiritualism played a significant role, particularly in relation to the affirmative defences of mental incapacity and duress. Assessing such culturally charged evidence, inherently interconnected to local beliefs, through the lens of an international criminal law trial raises a number of challenges. In the construction of the legal truth, such immaterial evidence undergoes a process through which only certain elements, which are deemed relevant in light of specific arguments, are ultimately selected, filtered through the legal framework, contested by the parties and ultimately decided upon by the judges. Spiritual beliefs therefore become patterns, and patterns become certainties. Based on an in-depth analysis of 408 trial transcripts, along with main submissions and decisions, this article sheds light into how framing spiritualism according to the criteria laid out in the Rome Statute has played out in the trial of Dominic Ongwen. It maps the way in which cultural concepts related to spirituality have been introduced into the trial, by which parties and for what purpose. It also looks at how the system of spiritual powers guiding the <span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">lra</span> and its fighters was assessed by the judges and potentially why.</p>","PeriodicalId":55966,"journal":{"name":"International Criminal Law Review","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138819609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Juan-Pablo Perez-Leon-Acevedo, Fabio Ferraz de Almeida
{"title":"Lights and Shadows of the Ongwen Case at the International Criminal Court","authors":"Juan-Pablo Perez-Leon-Acevedo, Fabio Ferraz de Almeida","doi":"10.1163/15718123-bja10168","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15718123-bja10168","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55966,"journal":{"name":"International Criminal Law Review","volume":"106 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139004553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Hollow Enterprise: International Criminal Justice and Public Relations","authors":"Birju Kotecha","doi":"10.1163/15718123-bja10166","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15718123-bja10166","url":null,"abstract":"Utilising a framework inspired by Edward Bernays, this article critiques public relations in international criminal justice. The article demonstrates public relations is a hollow enterprise comprised of one-way publicity and legitimation. Outreach and public information campaigns are endeavours reliant on standard messaging tactics that treat constituencies as uncritical and homogenous consumers. Such tactics reflect a deep and entrenched turn to marketing and image-management. Whilst such a turn may be inevitable, tribunals such as International Criminal Court need to establish meaningful relations with the public, developed through listening and a commitment to mutual co-learning that, in turn, can drive organisational improvements. In its absence, public relations is a mere exercise in presentation and will continue to lack significance in the contemporary information landscape","PeriodicalId":55966,"journal":{"name":"International Criminal Law Review","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138561841","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Constructing a Sensory Alternative to the Ongwen Judgment","authors":"Raghavi Viswanath, Fangyi Li","doi":"10.1163/15718123-bja10167","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15718123-bja10167","url":null,"abstract":"Much ink has been spilt criticising the <jats:sc>icc</jats:sc>’s <jats:italic>Ongwen</jats:italic> trial judgment for its failure to grasp the cultural context in which the accused Ongwen and the Acholi community were embedded. Some scholars blame this on the poor quality of translation services, others attribute it to the ‘binarism’ of judgments. We offer another explanation for the <jats:italic>Ongwen</jats:italic> judgment’s deficiencies: its purely textual format. The judgment shows that the continued preference for textual judgments in international criminal law sterilises victims’ experiences, decontextualises evidence, and muffles objectivity. This ties into the historical preference for text over senses, a colonially engineered decision aimed at suppressing non-Western epistemologies. In this paper, we call for the international criminal law judgment to embrace ‘the opportunities of the wider sensory field’. Drawing on the pervasive sensory dimensions of international criminal law, we argue that a sensory reimagination of judgments would better serve international criminal law’s affective potential by empowering survivors and achieving a more reparative and reconstructive justice.","PeriodicalId":55966,"journal":{"name":"International Criminal Law Review","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138518067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From Organ Trafficking to the Kosovo Specialist Chambers","authors":"Robert Muharremi","doi":"10.1163/15718123-bja10165","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15718123-bja10165","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The paper discusses how strategic narratives determine our understanding of politics and justice, and how such narratives can be deliberately constructed to achieve political ends through judicial means and by instrumentalizing international criminal law and courts. The article discusses the concept of strategic narratives from an inter-disciplinary perspective and explores the impact of strategic narratives on international criminal justice. For this purpose, it analyzes as a case study the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Report on “Inhuman treatment of people and illicit trafficking in human organs in Kosovo” of 2011, which led to the establishment of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and the Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor’s Office.","PeriodicalId":55966,"journal":{"name":"International Criminal Law Review","volume":"77 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135617777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fighters, Not Victims: On Victimhood Recognition and Gender Representations in the Enslavement Charges in the Ongwen Case","authors":"Silvina Sánchez Mera","doi":"10.1163/15718123-bja10164","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15718123-bja10164","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the Ongwen case, according to the otp women were abducted to be wives and men to be soldiers, women were forced to work and men forced to fight. The otp brought enslavement charges for some of these crimes. Absent from the charges was the forced fighting of men. This paper discusses the crime of enslavement in the Ongwen case. By combining a doctrinal analysis and a feminist approach, I seek to show how gender representations emerge in the application of the law in detriment of men’s victimhood. I argue that the application of the law responds to gender representations in war. Men are not perceived to be victims once they become ‘soldiers’. Likewise, for women, the effect is their continuous perception as non-fighters and victims of war. This leads to reinforcing those representations, to lack of acknowledgment of victimhood for men and to reducing the experiences of women.","PeriodicalId":55966,"journal":{"name":"International Criminal Law Review","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135618361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}