The ICC Trial Against Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo Begins

Dustin Lewis — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 19:57:35 +0000

Blog Type:

IHL in Action

Today, the trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo began at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. In the Court's third trial, the defendant pleaded “not guilty” to two counts of crimes against humanity (murder and rape) and three counts of war crimes (murder, rape, and pillaging). A former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mr. Bemba has been charged as a military commander allegedly responsible for his troops' actions in the Central African Republic from late October 2002 to mid-March 2003.

The ICC’s Rome Statute contains separate lists for war crimes committed during international armed conflicts (Articles 8(2)(a)-(b)) versus non-international armed conflicts (Article 8(2)(c) and 8(2)(e)), though each of the war crimes Mr. Bemba is accused of is recognized in both IAC and NIAC. By definition, war crimes may be committed only during situations of armed conflict (unlike crimes against humanity, which may be committed outside of armed conflicts).

To determine whether an armed conflict existed during the period for which Mr. Bemba is accused of war crimes, the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber II reviewed various factors drawn from the ICC's Statute, as well as the jurisprudence of the ICTY and ICTR, Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, Article 1(1) of Additional Protocol II, and relevant commentaries. Those factors included the intensity and duration of hostilities, as well as the organization of the parties. In confirming many of the charges against Mr. Bemba, Pre-Trial Chamber II concluded that there were substantial grounds to believe that a non-international armed conflict existed during the period under review. In doing so, the Chamber cited a lack of evidence to establish that another State had sent forces to oppose the CAR government:

[T]he Chamber finds that the armed conflict on the CAR territory was not of an international character. Throughout the time period in question, the conflict remained within the confines of the CAR. No information on the involvement of foreign States, which would characterise the conflict as international, is available in the Disclosed Evidence. The presence of a limited number of foreign troops on the CAR territory, such as the MLC soldiers, Chadian mercenaries and the Libyan troops, was intended to support the CAR government authorities to counter the organized armed group led by Mr Bozizé, and was not directed against the State of the CAR and its authorities.

For more detail about the legal elements of the case, see articles by Kai Ambos and Nora Karsten, as well as HPCR's "Primer" on sexual violence (Mr. Bemba allegedly committed, as a military commander, rape of women and children, as well as men, during the conflict). In 2009, Guénaël Mettraux published a book on “The law of command responsibility,” which won the Lieber Prize from the American Society of International Law. In addition, the Open Society Justice Initiative is publishing a website dedicated to the trial against Mr. Bemba.

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War Crimes

Crimes Against Humanity

Sexual Violence

ICC

Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo

CAR

Pillage

Murder

Command Responsibility

NIAC

JAMA Paper on Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Dustin Lewis — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:42:19 +0000

Blog Type:

IHL in Action

A paper published in Volume 304, No. 5, of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) spotlights sexual violence committed during armed conflict in (or more generally in conflict-affected areas of) the Democratic Republic of Congo. Based on interviews of 998 households, the report concludes that nearly 40% of women and more than 23% of men reported suffering sexual assault. Humanitarian relief personnel have already started responding to the report’s findings.
In June 2009, HPCR published a “Primer” on sexual violence and international humanitarian law. IHL prohibits sexual violence in both international and non-international armed conflicts. Acts of sexual violence—including rape, forced marriage, and forced nudity—have been prosecuted in domestic and international criminal tribunals. Partly depending on the situational predicate and on the intent of the perpetrator, acts of sexual violence may serve as the constituent elements of war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide. As the JAMA report confirms, perpetrators of sexual violence during armed conflict include not only men but also women, and survivor-victims of sexual violence include not only women but also men.

Blog Tags:

War Crimes

DRC

Sexual Violence

Crimes Against Humanity

Genocide

Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research - Crimes Against Humanity

The ICC Trial Against Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo Begins

JAMA Paper on Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo