Dominic Ongwen’s Appeal Rejected: ICC Must Deliver on Reparations

Today, five judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) unanimously rejected the appeal of former Lord’s Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen against the Reparations Order issued by the ICC Trial Chamber on 28 February 2024 in the case against him.

Following Ongwen’s conviction of 61 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, the Trial Chamber ordered an estimated total of € 52,429,000 in February 2024 to provide reparations awarded to approximately 49,772 direct and indirect victims. This is the largest reparation order ever issued by the ICC.

Effective implementation of the Reparations Order is crucial to ensuring that victims receive the reparation they are owed. In August 2024, REDRESS and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), with the the Global Survivors Fund (GSF), Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF), and the Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies at Gulu University, launched a briefing paper that examined the Reparations Order, making recommendations to ensure its implementation is survivor-centred.

The briefing paper calls for the effective collaboration of the Ugandan government, civil society, the ICC, and the broader international community to ensure that survivors’ needs and perspectives are prioritised and that adequate funding and resources are available for victims to receive reparations.

In September 2024, the ICC Trust Fund for Victims (TFV) submitted a Draft Implementation Plan, which was approved by the Court in February 2025. The TFV and ICC organs involved must ensure that reparations are delivered adequately, balancing promptness with the substantial resources required to fully implement the Order, and the need to adopt a survivor-centred approach that ensures victims are properly involved in the process.

As human rights organisations who submitted an amicus in the case, we welcome the decision by the ICC, while also emphasising the urgency to implement this order, given that two decades have passed since the crimes took place.

We urge the TFV and ICC organs, as well as other stakeholders, to ensure that reparations are designed and delivered in consultation with survivors to foster ownership and empowerment and facilitate healing among those most affected by Ongwen’s crimes.

Photo by ICC-CPI.