Assessing ICC's Impact in Africa

As part of its outreach work, IWPR Netherlands went to the city of Bukavu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, to talk to people on the ground about the impact of the Thomas Lubanga trial.

The Lubanga project is a joint initiative of IWPR and the Open Society Justice Initiative, OSI, and includes a website featuring daily reports from the courtroom as well comment and analysis.

The team met a wide range of civil society leaders and students to tell them about the reporting project and canvas their views on the International Criminal Court, ICC.

The consensus was that the ICC was having little impact on the ground because of the slowness of its legal proceedings and its failure to communicate with local people about the trial or its investigations.

NGO worker Yvette Kabuo Tsongo from Réseau des Femmes Pour la Défense des Droits et la Paix told IWPR that Congolese are losing confidence in the ICC because of its poor visibility.

This issue was highlighted in a special IWPR report which criticised the court for its lack of accessibility. Civil society activists, journalists and lawyers are frustrated that they do not have enough information about the court, and are struggling to disseminate news to the general population.

The report received widespread praise from NGOs.

Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, from the OSI, said that, in his view, those who are committed to the work of the ICC need to monitor it closely, criticise it constructively and hold it accountable to its mandate.

“I see the article as one such effort to ensure that the ICC lives up to its roles. I do not think it's an accident that since that [IWPR] article my colleagues and I over here have received some outreach inquiries and communications from the court and court staff appear to have got a bit more serious in outreach visits to different locations in Africa,” he said.