The ICC Lacks Legitimacy

Posted: December 14th, 2016

By Kirsten Bowman

Kirsten Bowman is currently a PhD candidate at Uppsala University in the field of public international law, looking at the relationship between the UN Security Council and the international criminal courts. She previously worked as a lawyer at both the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, as well as having clerked in Chambers at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Bowman has taught on subjects of international public law at Georgetown University and Uppsala University and consults for organizations focusing on international criminal law, including the UN, the Open Society Justice Initiative, the Women's Initiative for Gender Justice, and the International Bar Association. She holds a J.D. and is a member of the New York Bar.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has, in many ways, had a strong year. Two new preliminary investigations have been opened, in Burundi and the Gabonese Republic, while eight situations remain under on-going examination, including Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq, Palestine, and Ukraine, to name a few. The Office of the Prosecutor has also launched a new Policy on Children, laying out and strengthening efforts to address atrocity crimes against children. Meanwhile, the ICC delivered its first conviction for sexual violence in the case against Congolese opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo in March, delivered its first conviction for attacks in 2012 against religious and historic buildings in Timbuktu, Mali, and has brought the highest number of charges against one accused person thus far –70 charges against Dominic Ongwen, a former Lord’s Resistance Army commander in central Africa.

It is also important to note that the ICC bench is currently the most gender-balanced of any international criminal tribunal, with the Office of the Presidency being held entirely by women.

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