Minerva, Fall 2011 - Citizens for Global Solutions

instead be heard and enforced to protectthe fundamental rights of people everywhere.The Prosecutor’s Office spoke at length,meticulously detailing grim facts establishingthe responsibility of the accusedfor the crimes alleged. The evidenceshowed that waves of children, recruitedunder Mr. Lubanga’s command, movedthrough as many as 20 training camps,some holding between eight and sixteenhundred children under age 15.Words and figures cannot adequately portraythe physical and psychological harminflicted on vulnerable children who werebrutalized and who lived in constant fear.The loss and grief to their inconsolablefamilies is immeasurable. Their childhoodstolen, deprived of education and allhuman rights, the suffering of the youngvictims and their families left permanentscars. We must try to restore the faith ofchildren so that they may join in restoringthe shattered world from which theycame.Imagine the pain of mothers crying andpleading at the door of the camps still sufferingand wondering what happened totheir children. Picture the agony of thefather who said : “… He is my first son.All of my hopes were laid on him. … Thechild was ruined. … Today he can donothing in his life. He has abandoned hiseducation. And this is something whichaffects me greatly.”All of the girls recruited could expect tobe sexually violated.All of these events which the Prosecutionhas carefully presented have been provedbeyond reasonable doubt. Once again,“the case we present is a plea of humanityto law”. It was a call for human beings tobehave in a humane and lawful way.The hope of humankind is that compassionand compromise may replace thecruel and senseless violence of armedconflicts. That is the law as prescribed bythe Rome Statute that binds this Court aswell as the UN Charter that binds everyone.Vengeance begets vengeance. Theillegal use of armed force, which is thesoil from which all human rights violationgrow, must be condemned as a crimeagainst humanity. International disputesmust be resolved not by armed forcebut by peaceful means only. Seizing andtraining young people to hate and kill presumedadversaries undermines the legaland moral firmament of human society.Let the voice and the verdict of this esteemedglobal court now speak for theawakened conscience of the world.ïThe submissions of Germany, Italy andGreece on the merits had not been madepublic until the day Amnesty Internationalissued this public statement. Whenthe oral hearings have been concluded,Amnesty International “intends toaddress the arguments of the partieson this important issue”.War Crimes Reparation RightThe International Court of Justice should reaffirmthe century-old right of victims of war crimes to reparationby denying immunity claimAmnesty International42 • Minerva #39 • November 201112 September 2011On 23 December 2008, Germany initiated proceedings against Italy before the InternationalCourt of Justice seeking to permit civil claims by victims of war crimescommitted in Italy by members of the German armed forces during the Second WorldWar to proceed against Germany in Italian courts. In the 2004 case of Ferrini v. Italy,the Italian Corte di Cassazione (Court of Cassation) had concluded that Italian courtshave jurisdiction to consider reparation claims against Germany, leading a number ofvictims of the Second World War to institute civil proceedings against Germany inItalian courts. Germany, for its part, denied its obligation to pay reparation based onits claim of state immunity, leading to the seizure of German assets in Italy to enforcereparation judgments.On 4 July 2011, the Court granted an application by Greece to intervene in this case. AGreek court had issued a judgment in 1997 holding Germany responsible for the massacreby members of its armed forces of civilians in the Greek village of Distomo on10 June 1944. Once again Germany refused to provide reparation to the victims, claimingit was immune. After the Greek Minister of Justice refused to enforce the award,