Annual ICC Assembly: States hold ground on ICC, but serious challenges remain

Annual ICC Assembly: States hold ground on ICC, but serious challenges remain
CICC Global Justice Newsletter, 05 Dec 2016


The 15th Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute concluded in The Hague on 24 November 2016. Despite fears that more states could join the announced withdrawals of three African ICC member states from the Rome Statute in the lead-up to the Assembly, the 124 ICC member states and other delegates were praised for the constructive spirit of discussions at the annual meeting of the Court’s governing and legislative body. No further withdrawals were announced.
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Double-standards on budget
A group of the largest economy ICC member states–calling themselves the G7 (Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain and Canada) threatened to vote for a zero-growth budget for the ICC in 2017. In the end they succeeded in setting the ICC budget for 2017 at €141.6 million, a meagre increase on the 2016 budget of €139.5 million. This is €6 million less than Court officials had requested to maintain court activities and to open new investigations and prosecutions and to improve essential victim-related activities.
The Court’s budget request was approved by the Assembly’s own finance committee and comes after years of efficiency-measures. Its rejection very clearly hampers the ICC’s ability on its mandate to deliver fair, effective and independent justice to victims of grave crimes. States have mandated the Court to enforce the Rome Statute and to respond to demands for justice from victims and the global community. They cannot expect and demand the Court to do more each year with less.
“We continue to be disappointed that the ICC does not seem to be given the resources that it needs. We are concerned that the amount of funding that's been given to the Court may not be sufficient for it to carry out its activities. We really think that states need to think about this realistically, because we are not sure that they are the moment and I think that probably over the next twelve months the budget is going to be more of an issue than withdrawals,” said Alison Smith, legal counsel and director of the International Criminal Justice Programme of No Peace without Justice.
Threats to civil society 
One side-event, ironically on increasing threats to civil society working on the ICC, saw Kenyan human rights defender Gladwell Otieno threatened by a delegate with ties to the Kenyan government,  underlining the need for all states parties to be vigilant in their protection of civil society and vehement in supporting the integrity and independence of the Court. The ASP at this session adopted a statement of concern at the threats faced by NGOs working on the ICC.
“This is reflective of the way government treats human rights defenders in Kenya. They insult us, defame us, malign us… because we have a higher profile, there is more international attention on us, we are in a somewhat better position. But there are lots of young men in the slums or ghettos who are no longer living or who are regularly brutalised by police,” said Gladwell Otieno, executive director,  The Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG), representing Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice. “[It] is a worrying sign for civil society and I think that it is something that we need to pay a lot more attention to and something that we would also be looking to states to pay a lot more attention to and to speak out against,” Smith continued.

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