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

Structures & Institutional Development Recommendations
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The ASP should resist any efforts or proposals to reduce the field office in Uganda and for the
OTP to withdraw from the exercise of its jurisdiction in relation to the referral of the Situation
of Uganda to the ICC. The Court must retain jurisdiction and therefore a strong field office in
Uganda, due to the failure of the jurisdiction of the Ugandan International Crimes Division (ICD)
to meet the standards of the Rome Statute, particularly in relation to gender-based crimes. In
addition, in the first trial before the ICD, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions was
found to have overlooked critical issues including whether the accused qualified for amnesty
under the Ugandan Amnesty Act. 267 Such an oversight ultimately led to a dismissal of the case. 268
In such circumstances, the ICC cannot abandon the victims of the conflict in Uganda to a local
judicial process which, at this time, is demonstrably incapable of providing justice in relation to
war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Measures should be taken to address the significant gap between the number of women and
men appointed to field office positions. Currently, only 20% of the overall field staff are women
and there are more than twice as many men than women assigned to professional posts in the
field.
The ICC should also address the underrepresentation of nationals appointed to professional
posts within field offices. Currently there are no nationals from the countries with field offices
appointed to professional positions in any of these offices.
Budget
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The Court must prioritise improvements in its budget process as well as embark on longer
term financial planning. This year the Committee on Budget and Finance (CBF) noted a number
of budget issues, including the unprecedented number of potential expenses which were not
contained in the 2012 proposed budget. 269 They also noted the significantly higher expenses in
the Judiciary which had been miscalculated in the 2012 budget submitted by this organ to the
CBF. 270 The Presidency had not accurately considered the number of the newly elected judges
required for the expected cases in 2012, amounting to an additional expense of approximately €1
million.
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Submit to the CBF each year a 3-year expenditure forecast, in addition to the proposed next
year’s budget, as a means of encouraging medium term planning, reducing unexpected budget
items and building the capacity of the Court, a large and complex institution, to more effectively
identify known or knowable costs.
267 Ugandan Amnesty Act, 1 January 2000.
268 For further information on the Ugandan ICD case, please see the OTP – Uganda section of this <strong>Report</strong>.
269 <strong>Report</strong> of the Committee on Budget and Finance on the work of its seventeenth session, Advance Version, ICC-ASP/10/15,
6 September 2011, p 8.
270 Ibidem, p 7.
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