IJCentral: International Justice Central

An African Prosecutor, Africa cases, but still an international court.

It was announced this week that Ms. Fatou Bensouda, the current Deputy Prosecutor at the ICC, has been selected to become the next chief Prosecutor and will be sworn in next summer. Although the member states of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) have come to an informal consensus agreement on Ms. Fatou Bensouda, the official announcement will not be made until December 12th when the ASP meets at the United Nations.

Bensouda’s succession will mark the end of Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s nine-year term as the first Prosecutor of the ICC. Moreno-Ocampo has presided over cases in Uganda, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Ivory Coast, and Libya. He has also lead preliminary investigations in a number of other countries across the globe, from Afghanistan to Colombia. A verdict is expected in the trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo before the end of Ocampo’s term, which will be a landmark in international justice and the first verdict to be given since the Court’s formation in 2002. Bensouda, as Moreno-Ocampo’s deputy throughout his term, has been involved with all on going trials at The Hague, and is uniquely positioned to continue the current cases to their completion.

Bensouda, a Gambian lawyer, has had a remarkable career to date. She became the first female Attorney General in Africa, and is widely admired on the continent. Getting the support of the African member states of the ICC, which form the largest regional voting block, was integral to her successful bid for the position of Prosecutor. The question is whether the African Union will expect Bensouda to refocus the prosecutorial lens away from the continent once she begins her term.

The African Union has been outspoken in its claims that the ICC is unjustly targeting Africa, and will surely see the election of an African as Prosecutor as an opportunity to affect this perceived imbalance. However, Bensouda’s proven track record of impartiality, strength of belief in the ICC system and in the rights of the victims, is bound to make any such hopes to bully the new prosecutor entirely futile. We expect Bensouda to treat each new case as she sees it according to the evidence, the law, and the limits of her jurisdiction. That Bensouda is African will make little, if any difference, to her judgement on these facts. The institution of the ICC and what it represents is bigger than the nationality or personality of its Prosecutor. Naturally, her effectiveness will depend on a number of factors, which will include the political climate in the international community over her nine-year term, but one thing is sure, Bensouda will be serving the cause of justice, not the political will of the Africa Union, or the US and Europe. At least that is our profound hope here at IJCentral.