Gender Report Card on the International Criminal ... - YWCA Canada

OTP Situations and Cases
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CAR. 775 In the letter to the UN, President Bozizé
advocated for the CAR to maintain jurisdiction
over the events that occurred during the period
covered by the amnesty laws. 776
In addition, human rights groups in the CAR
and internationally, including the Women’s
Initiatives for <strong>Gender</strong> Justice, are calling for the
ICC to investigate crimes committed by the LRA
in the southeast of CAR, as discussed in the OTP
– Uganda section, above.
The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo
The trial against Bemba — the ICC’s third trial and the
second to include charges for gender-based crimes —
commenced on 22 November 2010. Bemba faces two
counts of crimes against humanity (murder 777 and
rape 778 ) and three counts of war crimes (murder, 779
rape 780 and pillaging 781 ) for his alleged responsibility,
as military commander, for crimes committed by the
MLC in the CAR.
The Bemba trial, the only trial to date arising from the
CAR Situation, is the ICC’s first against a high-profile
political and military figure, and in which the accused
is charged with command responsibility, including for
gender-based crimes. His trial began on 22 November
2010, and is discussed in detail in the Trial Proceedings
section, below. 782 Extensive background on the case
is available in the <strong>Gender</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>Card</strong> 2008, 2009 and
2010.
775 ‘Quand François Bozizé veut s’assurer à lui-même et
à ses sbires une impunité totale’, L’Independent CF, 1
August 2008, available at ,
last
visited on 27 October 2011; ICC-01/05-01/08-704-Red3,
para 57.
776 ICC-01/05-01/08-704-Red3, para 113.
777 Article 7(1)(a).
778 Article 7(1)(g).
779 Article 8(2)(c)(i).
780 Article 8(2)(e)(vi).
781 Article 8(2)(e)(v).
782 ‘Bemba Opens in the Hague’, Coalition for the
International Criminal Court Press Release, 22 November
2010, available at , last visited on 27 October 2011. See also
Women’s Initiatives for <strong>Gender</strong> Justice, ‘Statement
by the Women’s Initiatives for <strong>Gender</strong> Justice on the
Opening of the ICC Trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo’,
22 November 2010, available at .
Kenya
The Situation in Kenya arose out of the violence
surrounding the Kenyan national elections held
on 27 December 2007. It is the first Situation
before the ICC in which the Prosecutor has used
his proprio motu powers under Article 15 of the
Rome Statute to start an investigation on his own
initiative. Article 15 allows the Prosecutor to initiate
investigations on the basis of information of crimes
within the jurisdiction of the Court, after analysing
the seriousness of the information and submitting
a request for authorisation to the Pre-Trial
Chamber. The Pre-Trial Chamber, with Judge Kaul
dissenting, authorised the Prosecutor on 31 March
2010 to proceed with an investigation in Kenya. 783
The post-election violence in Kenya in December
2007 followed a disputed national election in
which incumbent President Mwai Kibaki 784 of the
Party of National Unity (PNU) faced a challenge
from opposition candidate Raila Odinga, leader
of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). In
the lead-up to the election, certain areas of the
country experienced violent outbreaks between
different ethnic groups supporting different
candidates. 785 Ethnic characterisations were used
by both sides in their campaigns. On the one side,
the Kalenjin (and Luo) ethnic group predominantly
supported the ODM; on the other side, support for
the PNU was particularly strong among the Kikuyu
population. 786 Following the disputed results that
783 ICC-01/09-19. For a detailed discussion of the filings relating
to the authorisation decision of 31 March 2010, see <strong>Gender</strong>
<strong>Report</strong> <strong>Card</strong> 2010, p 118-127.
784 Kibaki came to power in 2002 as leader of the National
Rainbow Coalition (NaRC). He ran again in the December
2007 elections, this time as candidate for the Party of
National Unity (PNU).
785 For more information about the ethnic dimensions of the
Kenya Situation, please see ‘Ballots to Bullets: Organised
Political Violence and Kenya’s Crisis of Governance’, Human
Rights Watch, March 2008, p 19, available at , last
visited on 27 October 2011.
786 ‘Ballots to Bullets: Organised Political Violence and Kenya’s
Crisis of Governance’, Human Rights Watch, March 2008, p
36, available at , last visited on 27 October 2011.