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International Law T215

International Criminal Court, or ICC, was established in 2002 and can be identified and considered as one of the essential pillars of the global justice system. Since it is an Inviolable court that is supposed to prosecute offenders of international criminal enmities, including Genocide, crimes against humanity, war, and crimes of aggression, the ICC has the role of implementing international laws. This paper will examine a specific case that has challenged and defined the ICC's mandate: the trial of Dominic Ongwen, who was the officer in the LRA that was involved in the abduction of children and the raping of women and boys, among other violations in Uganda. The case of Dominic Ongwen is quite a fascinating one and complicated for the ICC in the sense that the accused was at the same time a victim of war crimes as well as a perpetrator of the same. This paper will discuss how the ICC tackled this specific case and assess the institution's application of realism and Constructivism as principles in handling the case. The goal will be to analyze the actor and forum ontologies to help further dissect this case's dynamics.

Background of the International Criminal Court

The ICC stemmed from the commitment of the international community to put an end to impunity for crime perpetrators of the type that is of global concern, as the first permanent international criminal Court in the world that was founded based on the Rome Statute, which was adopted in 1998 and came into force in 2002 (Government of Netherlands). The Court's structure consists of four principal organs: the Presidency, the Chambers, the Office of the Prosecutor, and the Registry (International Criminal Court 7). The ICC operates under complementarity; it takes over cases where local courts can or are unwilling to do so. Its jurisdiction covers four main crimes: The subtypes of international crimes include Genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.

Specific Case Analysis: The Prosecution of Dominic Ongwen

It may be proper to say that due to the nature of events surrounding Dominic Ongwen's case, it is probably one of the most peculiar in international criminal justice. Owing to the civil conflict, Ongwen was kidnapped by the LRA at the age of 10 and later made to become a child soldier (Traldi). He then advanced in rank to become one of the leaders in the rebel group, which has long been accused of having among the worst human rights abuses of the country that included murder, torture, rape, and enlistment of child soldiers. Ongwen voluntarily waived in January 2015 to the US troops in the Central African Republic and was later handed to the ICC (Traldi). The indictment filed against him was very detailed, with seventy charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in northern Uganda for the period between 2002 and 2005 (Traldi). Thus, the Ongwen case has several implications: First, he was the initial LRA commander who was tried at ICC, offering the way forward for the numerous LRA victims of guerrilla warfare that has been continued for several years. Secondly, the case had a moral and legal issue mainly because Ongwen was both a victim and a perpetrator of the crime. This complexity raised issues about the concept of guilt and the effects of childhood factors on one's conduct in adulthood. The nature of the prosecution of the case at the ICC entailed a strict adherence to the Investigation Directions and Evaluation of evidence carried from different sources, including victims, expert witnesses, and other documents. After the case started in December 2016, some of the main difficulties were that witnesses should be guarded, the accused and victims speak different languages, and the investigation concerns many psychological nuances of the crime (Traldi).

Theoretical Analysis

Two schools of thought can be applied to better understand the ICC's handling of the Ongwen case: Realism and Constructivism. International politics discipline inspired several theories, of which realism is one of the most influential theories and supposes that states have their strategic imperatives within the non-hierarchical world. From this perspective, it is possible to study the states' cooperation (or its absence) in Ongwen's case. When Ongwen perpetrated the crimes, Uganda first referred the situation to the ICC in 2004 (Traldi). This action can be viewed as the tactical political decision of the Ugandan government to use international resources to fight the LRA threat. However, realism would also pinpoint why some states, especially those outside the status of Rome, may not be keen to cooperate with the ICC as they may perceive it as a threat to their sovereignty. However, this was just fulfilled when Ongwen was eventually taken to trial. Hence, one can argue that the state interests, in this case, converged to allow for this international cooperation. Nevertheless, the difficulties of arresting other members of LRA, like Joseph Kony, have clearly shown the problems of working with ICC, especially when the state is unwilling to offer its support.

On the other hand, Constructivism is more concerned with how knowledge, rules, and other endowments that people attach to social relationships define international relations. Using this theoretical perspective, it is possible to grasp the ICC's function in constructing and consolidating the norms of the global community concerning child soldiers and sexual violence in conflict. Thus, the fact that Ongwen is prosecuted for crimes that he committed himself in his childhood as a member of forces that kidnap children to make them soldiers also has a strong message - any use of child soldiers and allowing children to participate in hostilities is prohibited. Furthermore, how the ICC has dealt with the sexual violence charges in Ongwen's case adds to the development of practice concerning gender-based crimes in armed conflict. Thus, such crimes are documented and prosecuted within the framework of the ICC, which strengthens the concept that sexual violence is not a consequence of war but rather an essential component that should be fought against.

Ontological Analysis

Using concepts for actor ontology in the Ongwen case helps analyze the main actors' structures and processes. They are the ICC prosecutors who constructed and argued the case; Ongwen, whose personal history seems to defy standard notions of the guilty perpetrator; the victims whose accounts were central to the ICC prosecution's proof; and Uganda, whose assistance was imperative in the investigation and trial.

From the actor's perspective, emerging power relations are eyed. For example, the current and the former child soldiers and other women became the objects of prosecution. Still, the accused's legal representatives, for instance, Ongwen, were trying to consider that he was also a victim. Witnesses for the prosecution, although vital to the matter, also exposed them to certain dangers in testifying before ICC, implying that the Court had some responsibility of protecting victims. The Ugandan government's role shows how national interest can co-exist in international justice and how such coexistence can sometimes be very fragile and shift from one political direction to another.

The forum ontology can be applied to the Ongwen case and is a helpful perspective in understanding the situation. As the forum that offered justice at the international level, the ICC was a place where, when eliminating nationalism and partiality, the case's details could be looked through. This ontology demonstrates how the ICC is a court to address international crimes that may not be prosecuted due to incompetence or dilly-dallying from the national courts. In the Ongwen case, the ICC as a forum facilitated the detailed analysis of the LRA's crimes. At the same time, it might have been difficult in Uganda's national Court of law due to political conflict. In addition, due to the global format of the forum, the case drew the attention of people across the world; future would-be criminals might reconsider steps that would lead to such trials, and the permanent ban on the use of child soldiers and sexual violence in conflicts would be strengthened.

Evaluation of the ICC's Effectiveness in the Ongwen Case

These two aspects prove the advantages and disadvantages of ICC as the Prosecutor conducted the trial of Dominic Ongwen. On the success side, the Court proved that it could handle a case of an unusual degree of difficulty and, at the same time, address justice issues without ignoring the abuse that the accused was subjected to. In this respect, the trial gave the victims a chance to testify and share all the sufferings that were performed by LRA, which helped to witness the history of the conflict in Northern Uganda (ICC). Furthermore, the case provided significant jurisprudence, specifically about the legal responsibility of former child soldiers for the crimes they performed at their ages and rape through forced marriage classification as a crime against humanity. LRA leaders have continued to evade justice; however, the acquittal of the charges against Ongwen in February 2021, wherein he was convicted on 61 out of 70 charges, ushered in justice for the victims (Traldi). However, the case also showed different difficulties that the ICC faced. Another factor that could be critiqued was the time taken from the beginning of the trial till the verdict was given, which was over four years. Although the case's complexity could not be avoided, it pressured the Court's capacity. It challenged it to deliver a fair trial while dispensing justice quickly. Furthermore, Ongwen was successfully prosecuted, but another LRA leader, Joseph Kony, is still on the run. It underlines the problem of states' cooperation in the arrest and surrender of suspects, which is the primary concern of the ICC.

Conclusion

To that extent, the Dominic Ongwen case is an excellent example of the effectiveness and inefficiency of the International Criminal Court. It shows how the ICC can address difficult situations touching on child soldiers and sexual violence, thus settling legal milestones. The trial helped the victims to speak and offered sure justice. However, this also unveiled the weakness it has concerning precautionary measures in the Court, and even capability of arresting offenders. As for further development, the ICC needs to achieve an effective cooperation with states' authorities and uphold comprehensive and fair investigation concurrently with providing timely justice. Nevertheless, it is high time to stress that the Ongwen case proves the necessity of the ICC's continuing work and the development of international justice standards. Thus, with time, the Court continues as one of the fundamental players in the global legal framework.

Works Cited

Government of Netherlands. "The International Criminal Court (ICC)." Government of Netherlands, 30 Sept. 2014, www.government.nl/topics/international-peace-and-security/international-legal-order/the-international-criminal-court-icc#:~:text=In%201998%2C%2060%20countries%20signed,investigate%20and%20prosecute%20war%20criminals.

ICC. "Ongwen Case." International Criminal Court, www.icc-cpi.int/uganda/ongwen #:~:text=On%204%20February%202021%2C%20Trial,2002%20and%2031%20December%202005.

International Criminal Court. "Understanding the International Criminal Court." International Criminal Court, pp. 1-49. www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/iccdocs/PIDS/docs/UICCGeneralENG.pdf.

Traldi, Arthur. "Situation in Uganda (Prosecutor v. Dominic Ongwen) (Judgment on Appeal) (Int'l Crim. Ct. App. Chamber)." International Legal Materials, vol. 62, no. 6, July 2023, pp. 1005-24. https://doi.org/10.1017/ilm.2023.27.