Reparation and assistance

(source: International Criminal Court)

One of the lessons learned from earlier tribunals, is that reparation and assistance for victims is direly needed in cases where people have suffered from international crimes, including CRSV. Such possibilities were hardly available or enforceable before tribunals such as the ICTY and ICTR. While the ICC investigates and prosecutes the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression, there is now a separate body – the Trust Fund for Victims (TFV) – to respond to the harm resulting from the crimes under the jurisdiction of the ICC.

The TFV fulfils two unique mandates: (1) implementing reparations awards ordered against a convicted person by the Court; and (2) providing assistance to victims and their families in ICC situations through programmes that aim to support them in picking up their lives again (see Articles 75 and 79 of the Rome Statute; and Rules 94-99 RPE). The first mandate of the TFV can only be implemented after a conviction and therefore it can take long before reparation is provided to victims; the second mandate of the TFV, on the other hand, can already be implemented even before the start of the case and even extend to the situation before the Court as a whole.

Reparation

The Court may award reparations on an individual and/or collective basis, whichever is, in its view, the most appropriate for the victims in the particular case. Collective and/or individual reparations may include monetary compensation, return of property, rehabilitation, medical support, victims’ services centres, or symbolic measures such as apologies or memorials.

The ICC ordered reparation in, for example, the Ntaganda and Ongwen cases. In the 2021 Ntaganda ruling on reparations, the Court established collective reparations with individualised components to address the harm caused by rape and sexual slavery, and recognised children born of rape and sexual slavery as direct victims. This was the long awaited first reparation order for sexual violence crimes by the ICC.

Assistance

Victims of sexual violence and their children, including children born out of rape, have access to the following types of assistance through the TFV:

• • Basic health services;
  • Reconstructive surgery, bullet and bomb fragment removal, orthopaedic devices, referrals to services like fistula repair, HIV and AIDS screening, treatment, and support;
  • Education grants, vocational training, nutrition support, or access to income generation and training opportunities;
  • Individual and group-based trauma counselling; trauma-counselling aimed at strengthening the mother to child to family bonds; inter-generational responses addressing stigma, discrimination and reconciliation in families;

Peacebuilding activities such as music, dance and drama groups and sport activities to promote social cohesion and healing; community dialogue and reconciliation to foster peace within and between the communities that create a suitable environment for prevention of crimes.

In 2022 alone, close to 20,000 people received direct support from the TFV programmes in five countries. Yet, the TFV heavily relies on voluntary contributions made by States and others in order to fulfil its mandate. In 2023, due to a severe lack of funding available, the TFV made an urgent appeal for funding to support victims of conflict-related sexual violence through its country programmes in the Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali and Uganda.

Listen to the UN Team of Experts on CRSV’s “Digital Dialogue Series” on judicial and non-judicial reparations for victims of CRSV:

(source: YouTube, End War in Rape)

Sources (a selection):

• Sunneva Gilmore, “Better Late than Never: Reparations for Sexual Violence in the Ntaganda case before the International Criminal Court”, Journal of Human Trafficking, Enslavement and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, Vol. 2, Issue 1 (2021), 27-47.
• Trust Fund for Victims, Annual report 2021.

ASSIGNMENT

There has been quite some critique on the reparation and assistance mandates of the TFV and how it can have a meaningful impact on the lives of victims/survivors of international crimes, including those who survived CRSV.

Listen to the ICC Judges on the Ntaganda reparation order for victims:

(source: International Criminal Court)

Questions:

(1) Who is Ntaganda?

(2) For which CRSV crimes was he convicted by the ICC?

(3) What is the procedure to request for reparation?

(4) How was reparation addressed in the 2021 Ntaganda reparation order?

(5) How effective has the reparation been for the victims of CRSV concerned (following the implementation of the Ntaganda reparation order)?