The Representation of Victims in the Proceedings

The victims’ representatives sat in Court throughout the proceedings. The Rome Statute provides victims with a unique role in international criminal proceedings allowing them under certain conditions to participate in proceedings via their legal representatives. The Statute allows for a certain possible range of participatory rights for victims’ representatives, including making opening and closing statements and the questioning of witnesses. It is up to the Chamber to determine the extent of the participation. In the case of Mr Lubanga four victims were granted such rights; a group of three being represented by one counsel, with the other victim represented by separate counsel.

For the sake of clarity the representative of the single victim will be referred to as the representative of victim 0105. When the Court determined their mode of participation (in a decision of 22 September 2006), it took into account the fact that all four victims wished to remain anonymous. They were thus granted the right to make opening and closing statements and to ask the Chamber for permission to intervene during proceedings, to be determined on a case-by-case basis. The victims' representatives were not, however, granted the right to question any witnesses or have access to any non-public documents or to closed sessions of the hearing, save in exceptional circumstances.

The victims' representatives were granted 45 minutes respectively to make their opening statements (as opposed to one and a half hours granted to the Prosecution and two and a quarter hours to the Defence), the order of the statements to be Prosecution, Victims’ representatives, then Defence.

Counsel appearing for the three victims gave a summary of the individual circumstances of each victim, all of whom are parents of children allegedly used as child soldiers by the UPC, some of whom also had children allegedly killed by the militia. He also referred to the fact that victims who knew Mr Lubanga’s past would not be surprised to see him facing possible charges. Finally he mentioned the collapse of the judicial system in the DRC denying victims the right to any possible redress at the national level.

The representative for victim 0105 adopted a different approach in his opening statement and focused on a broader examination of the role of victims in the proceedings, stating that sometimes their concerns may overlap with both the Prosecution and the Defence and sometimes conflict. He emphasised that the victim's role was not as a second prosecutor and that they had no role in the selection of charges.

Both representatives addressed the issues of what the victims wanted to obtain from the proceedings, mentioning the search for truth; deterrence and punishment of the crimes in question; to be granted the status of victims rather than criminals; respect for their humanity and recognition of their suffering. Both representatives took less than the allotted time to deliver their statements.

So far, the victims’ representatives have only asked for permission to intervene on a few occasions. On one occasion the victims' representative asked for access to copies of public documents listed on the Prosecution and Defence lists of evidence, a request which was subsequently submitted in writing on behalf of both victims’ representatives and granted by the Chamber. On another occasion the representative of victim 0105 requested that after going into any closed session the victims' representatives be authorised to ask if any issues arose that impacted upon victims and, if so, that the Chamber protected their rights. The Chamber did not specifically comment on this request.

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