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

Judiciary – Key Decisions Protection and Protective Measures
those associated with the Court’s activities.
Out-of-court protection measures can include
relocation and placement in a safe house,
support in remaining in the location they reside
in, as well as the manner in which victims are
contacted and questioned in preparation for
trial. The periodic consideration of the interim
release of an accused, required by the Rome
Statute, also raises protection issues throughout
a trial’s proceedings.
In-court measures
In the three trials currently underway, two of
which include charges and therefore victims and
witnesses addressing to sexual violence, all the
Chambers have utilised protective measures.
Protective measures are thus in place to protect
vulnerable witnesses, including witnesses
of sexual violence, to testify with confidence
in their physical and psychological safety. 2033
Greater use of in-court protective measures by
the ICC reflects the judicial exercise of statutory
obligations outlined in the Rules of Procedure
and Evidence of the Rome Statute, particularly
Rules 70, 71, 72, 87 and 88, concerning, inter
alia, in camera hearings and the use of special
measures. As noted by Brigid Inder in a
presentation at UNHCHR in May 2011:
This may reflect a change in legal
practice towards more compassionate
and effective soliciting of testimony; it
may also reflect greater understanding
and legal evolution in international
criminal law regarding issues of
consent in coercive environments
such as armed conflicts, which makes
combative challenges along these lines
redundant.
2033 ‘Presentation by Brigid Inder to the UNHCHR Expert
Meeting on <strong>Gender</strong> and Witness and Victim Protection’,
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, 26-27
May 2011.
Information from the Registry indicates that
as of June 2010, 12 of the 15 (80%) Prosecution
witnesses (including expert witnesses) who
have testified in the Katanga & Ngudjolo case,
the first case to include crimes of gender-based
violence, have benefited from some degree
of in-court protective measures. 2034 Similarly,
according to the International Bar Association
(IBA), 22 of 28 witnesses in the Lubanga trial
testified subject to protective measures and
either partially or entirely in closed session. 2035
In fact, the extensive use of in camera hearings
resulted in a 2010 Defence request in the
Katanga & Ngudjolo case that the Trial Chamber
review its high use of closed and private sessions,
and to take steps to mitigate their effect. 2036
2034 ICC-01/04-01/07-2255.
2035 ‘The ICC’s Trials: An Examination of Key Judicial
Developments at the International Criminal Court
between November 2009 and April 2010’, International
Bar Association ICC Programme <strong>Report</strong>, International
Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, May 2010,
p 10, available at , last visited on 31 October 2011.
2036 ICC-01/04-01/07-215. For more information about this
challenge, see <strong>Gender</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>Card</strong> 2010, p 162-163.
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