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

Judiciary – Key Decisions Victim Participation
further below, the Registry acknowledged this
issue by filing a proposal for an ‘alternative
approach’ to victim participation at the
confirmation hearing, 1688 whereby the views
and concerns of unprocessed applicants for
victim participation could be submitted to the
Chamber under the category of ‘other victims’,
taken from the language of Rule 93 of the Rules
of Procedure and Evidence. 1689 In response to the
Registry’s filing, Pre-Trial Chamber I held that
Rule 93, although technically applicable, was
inappropriate in the circumstances and would
only allow for a limited form of participation
for the applicants in question. 1690 Likewise,
the volume of unprocessed applications for
participation have led to complaints from the
parties to the case, particularly the Defence,
regarding the burden placed on the parties
when hundreds of applications for participation
are transmitted (and therefore require analysis
and observations) at once, and must be dealt
with alongside other pressing legal issues such
as witness preparation or pre-trial procedural
filings. 1691
1688 ICC-01/04-01/10-213, paras 7-15.
1689 Rule 93 states the following: ‘A Chamber may seek
the views of victims or their legal representatives
participating pursuant to 89 to 91 on any issue… In
addition, a Chamber may seek the views of other victims,
as appropriate.’
1690 ICC-01/04-01/10-229.
1691 See for example the May 2011 Defence successful
motion in the Mbarushimana case that the Chamber
should refuse to allow the Registry to transmit any
further applications for victim participation outside
the initial deadline but prior to the confirmation of
charges hearing (ICC-01/04-01/10-169) and the Defence
objections filed in the Bemba case in relation to the
burden caused to the parties by the timing and volume
of the transmission of applications for participation
by the VPRS (ICC-01/05-01/08-1413). Trial Chamber III’s
decision on the transmission of applications for victim
participation by the VPRS in the Bemba case is discussed
in greater detail below.
Breakdown of participants by
Situation 1692
Pursuant to Article 68 of the Rome Statute,
victims may apply for and be granted the right
to participate at all stages of proceedings
before the Court, including the pre-trial, trial
and appeal phases, but, in practice, the Court’s
jurisprudence has limited the potential for
victims to enjoy a general right to participate
at the Situation stage of proceedings. In
December 2008 and February 2009, the Appeals
Chamber issued two important decisions in
the DRC and Darfur Situations rejecting the
granting of participation rights to victims at the
investigation stage of a Situation and holding
that there must be specific judicial proceedings
capable of affecting the personal interests of the
victims before they can be granted the right to
participate. 1693 These decisions temporarily put
an end to the granting of participation rights
to new victim applicants at the Situation stage,
although they did not affect the status of victims
who had already been accepted to participate in
relation to a Situation before the Court. This year,
decisions in the DRC, CAR and Kenya Situations,
discussed in more detail below, set out the
procedural framework to be followed in relation
to new and future applications for victim
participation in specific judicial proceedings at
the Situation stage. Under the current system
of victim participation at the Court, victims who
have suffered harm caused by the commission of
crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court may
apply to participate at the Situation stage, while
victims who have suffered harm as a result of
specific crimes included in the charges against
a suspect or accused person can also apply to
participate in that specific case. 1694
1692 These figures are accurate as of 30 August 2011.
1693 ICC-01/04-556 and ICC-02/05-177. See further <strong>Gender</strong>
<strong>Report</strong> <strong>Card</strong> 2009, p 99-100.
1694 See .
275