Abstract

TUNAMSIFU, Shirambere Philippe. Twelve years of judicial cooperation between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the International Criminal Court: Have expectations been met?. Afr. hum. rights law j. [online]. 2019, vol.19, n.1, pp.105-125. ISSN 1996-2096.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/1996-2096/2019/v19n1a6.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a party to the Rome Statute. Unable to deal with past serious violations of human rights the country decided formally to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court. Based on article 54(3)(c) of the Rome Statute a judicial cooperation agreement was signed between the DRC and the ICC in 2004. As a result six cases have been prosecuted. The research relied on legislation, literature and empirical fieldwork as its sources of information. To collect data, 29 key informants were interviewed and three focus group discussions were held. After a data analysis the following results were found. Thirteen key informants and participants in the focus group appreciated the iCC's jurisdiction over international crimes and its complementarity to the Congolese judicial system as it brought some relief in the fight against impunity considering the lack of political will on the part of the government to prosecute alleged perpetrators. Eleven key informants and participants in the focus group revealed that the ICC was selective as it prosecuted some perpetrators and freed others (mostly the leaders). Six key informants and participants in the focus group noted that the achievements of the ICC were below the expectations of the population due to the prolonged nature of the proceedings. Six key informants regretted the fact that the ICC does not have retroactive jurisdiction for crimes committed in the DRC before the entry into force of the Rome Statute. Therefore, the study recommends that the ICC should avoid selective justice in prosecuting persons bearing the greatest responsibility. The ICC must also make an effort to prevent further delays in proceedings and avoid long trials in order to meet Congolese expectations and, therefore, restore its credibility and avoid frustration on the part of victims.

Keywords : complementarity; crimes; DRC; fight against impunity; International Criminal Court; judicial cooperation; Rome Statute; selective justice; slow proceedings.

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