Publications

In anticipation of the 8th Session of the Assembly of State Parties in Kampala, Uganda, the Victims Rights Working Group in collaboration with REDRESS has submitted a report regarding the Impact of the Rome Statute system on victims and affected communities. The Review Conference will consider amendments to the Statute and conduct a ‘stocktaking exercise’, to consider the overall impact and effectiveness of the Rome Statute System. Other issues to be considered include aspects of complementarity, cooperation and in relation to peace and justice.

Redress has submitted a discussion paper to the Trust Fund for Victims at the International Criminal Court on the 'Progressive Realisation of its Mandate'. At the international level, victims’ rights to obtain a remedy and reparation have been vastly ignored, mirroring the entrenchment of the impunity of the perpetrators. The ICC's Trust Fund for Victims is therefore a crucial feature of the ICC, distinguishing it from most ad hoc international criminal tribunals and special courts, which have been unable to give effect to victims’ rights to a remedy and reparation.

Our annual report for 2010 provides an overview of the work that REDRESS undertook from 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2010.

Following the 2009 report published by the International Criminal Court regarding Legal Aid, the Victims' Rights Working Group in collaboration with REDRESS have submitted a paper to further critique these issues. The ICC's report contributed positively to the debate on legal aid for victims, raising serious considerations in ensuring their effective participation in the proceedings, and providing a useful first framework with which to consider the implementation of the Court’s activities. However, we remain concerned about the delay in issuing the new procedural forms and their continued unavailability to civil society in situation countries. Furthermore, we note with concern the continued resistance against integrating the declaration of indigence and accepting a possible investigation into means into the form.

Redress, alongside various civil society organisations, has been invited to submit comments to the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court on the recently published Policy Paper on Victims’ Participation. While REDRESS appreciates the steps taken by the OTP to ensure the policy reflect the mechanisms of victim participation as ‘an essential feature of the Rome Statute system and a contribution to international justice', we have sought to to highlight a few issues which are of central concern to us regarding the Policy's implementation. We welcome any further discussion with the OTP on the matters raised here.

This briefing, co-authored by Redress, Amnesty International (UK), the International Federation for Human Rights, Global Witness, Human Rights Watch, and Justice, express our grave concerns on the proposed change to law that would allow the Attorney General to interfere with the arrest warrant procedure. By allowing such arrest decisions to fall subject to political considerations rather than being based on the legal merits, this proposal would seriously undermine the UK's capacity to hold the perpetrators of serious international crimes to account where they came within the UK’s jurisdiction. Suspects may therefore find a safe haven in the UK, and victims find further barriers in their fight for justice and reparations.

This report draws attention to the continuing threats and reprisals faced by victims, their family members, witnesses in their case, their legal representatives and human rights defenders and the accompanying serious inadequacy of protection measures available to victims of torture and related international crimes. It aims to contribute to the efforts of the United Nations to develop common standards and promote best practices that would serve as guidelines to States in protecting witnesses and others concerned with providing cooperation in trials for gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law. It also hopes to be helpful to governments contemplating the development of protection systems and civil society groups advocating for such systems to be adopted.