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

Trial Proceedings
The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo
Thomas Lubanga Dyilo (Lubanga) is the first
accused to stand trial before the ICC. He
was arrested on 16 March 2006. The trial
commenced on 26 January 2009, and the
presentation of evidence stage officially closed
on 20 May 2011. On 25 and 26 August 2011,
Trial Chamber I 1100 heard closing statements
by the Prosecution, the Legal Representatives
of Victims, 1101 and the Defence. Lubanga is a
Congolese national of Hema ethnicity, born in
1960 in the DRC. He is the alleged founder and
president of the UPC, and is charged with war
crimes consisting of enlisting and conscripting
of children under the age of 15 years into the
FPLC, and using them to participate actively
in hostilities between September 2002 and
August 2003.
According to information provided by the Court
at the closing of the Lubanga case, over the
course of 220 hearings, Trial Chamber I heard 36
witnesses called by the Prosecution, including
three experts, 19 Defence witnesses, 3 witnesses
called by the Legal Representatives of Victims,
and four other expert witnesses called by the
Chamber. 1102 The Prosecution witnesses included
seven former members of the UPC militia 1103
and nine former child soldiers. 1104 One Defence
witness, Witness 19, has applied for asylum with
the Dutch authorities. The applications remain
pending at the time of writing this <strong>Report</strong>. 1105
1100 Trial Chamber I is composed of Presiding Judge Sir
Adrian Fulford (United Kingdom), Judge Elizabeth Odio-
Benito (Costa Rica), and Judge René Blattmann (Bolivia).
1101 As of 25 July 2011, 123 victims had been granted leave to
participate in the proceedings.
1102 ‘Trial Chamber I to deliberate on the case against
Thomas Lubanga Dyilo’, Press Release, ICC-CPI-20110826-
PR714, 26 August 2011, available at , last visited on 28 October 2011.
1103 ICC-01/04-01/06-T-356-ENG, p 4 line 12.
1104 ICC-01/04-01/06-T-356-ENG, p 5 line 2.
1105 For a detailed discussion of the asylum proceedings, see
the Protection section of this <strong>Report</strong>.
Summary of the
closing arguments in the
Lubanga case
Charges for gender-based crimes were not
included in the case against Lubanga, despite
the availability of numerous documents, UN
and NGO reports, including reports from
the Women’s Initiatives for <strong>Gender</strong> Justice,
indicating that the UPC committed such
crimes. Since the early stages of the case, the
Women’s Initiatives has advocated for further
investigation and re-examination of the charges.
It was also the first NGO to submit filings before
the ICC regarding the inclusion of gender-based
crimes in the charges, 1106 and has monitored and
analysed the filings, jurisprudence, and witness
testimony throughout the trial, 1107 in particular
regarding girl soldiers and gender-based
crimes. 1108
Lubanga was arrested and surrendered to
the Court on 16 March 2006, and his trial
1106 See Legal Filings submitted by the Women’s Initiatives
for <strong>Gender</strong> Justice to the International Criminal Court,
available at .
1107 See, for instance, the following issues of Legal Eye on
the ICC: July 2011, available at , May
2011, available at ,
May 2010, available at , September
2009, available at , June 2009,
available at , May 2009, available at
, and March 2009, available at
.
1108 See, Brigid Inder, Executive Director of the Women’s
Initiatives for <strong>Gender</strong> Justice, ‘Reflection: <strong>Gender</strong> Issues
and Child Soldiers in the case of Prosecutor v. Thomas
Lubanga Dyilo’, 25 August 2011, available at .
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