18TH SESSION OF THE ASSEMBLY OF STATES PARTIES TO THE ROME STATUTE
Day 4 (5 December 2019)
Name of the Event: Ethics and Good Practices in the Investigation of Crimes under ICC Jurisdiction (Side Event co-hosted by the Netherlands and the National Commission for Human Rights of the Democratic Republic of Congo)
Overview by: Francisca De Castro, Junior Research Associate PILPG-NL
Main Highlights:
The Commission Nationale de Defense des Droits de l’Homme (CNDH) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) presented their code on ethics and good practices in the investigation of crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC.
The CNDH is an organization created to promote ethics in investigations of international crimes in the DRC. They were supported by the ICC and the Embassy of France in the DRC.
Summary of the Event:
“C is for Confidentiality, N for Neutrality, D for Dedication and H for Honorability, those are the values that CNDH stands for”, the President of the CNDH, Mr. Mwamba Mushikonke Mwamus said. This institution was created with the objective of promoting and protecting human rights. The president of the CNDH opened the panel by discussing the creation of the CNDH and their ties with the ICC. He said that since 2017, the ICC has supported the CNDH through technical support by providing help in training the investigators according to international law standards. The result of this training was a code of ethics in the investigation of international crimes, which is now the guiding code for any member participating in the CNDH. Furthermore, the president thanked the Embassy of France in the DRC for their financial support in creating this project. Now, after having created the code, the president of the CNDH noted that the next step is the appropriation of the code. This has been done through workshops aimed at professionals working in the field of justice, as well as authorities such as the deputy prime minister for security. Mr. Mushikonke further elaborates on these achievements by saying that the CNDH’s efforts have been recognized as they were asked to do these workshops in other countries in Africa.
Mr. James Stewart, deputy prosecutor of the ICC was the next panelist to intervene, and he emphasized the importance of drafting a text on the ethics in investigation, and that the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) was aware of the lack of consensus, which is why they started their support, and continued to support this initiative. He highlighted that this code represented a tool of maximum importance in the protection of human rights, and that it was unlike any other document created. He equally shared Mr. Mushikonke’s views that this was the continuation of the efforts by the OTP to participate in the reinforcement of the capacities of the investigators. These efforts were oriented to training the investigators so that their work would meet the international community’s standards in matters of investigation.
Finally, Mr. André-Marie Kito Masimango, the national coordinator for the CICC in the DRC, discussed the situation in the DRC. Since the DRC is a situation state, the ICC has been present in the field since 2004. He emphasized that the exchanges between the DRC and the ICC, particularly relating to cooperation, as well as information and knowledge exchange are very rich, especially since most of the ICC’s jurisprudence is based on cases from the DRC. He equally highlighted that this code was of maximum importance considering that ethics was not just a matter of the investigative team, but for all of the legal professions. He was adamant about the fact that the prosecution and defense teams need to convince the judges, and to do so, the evidence needs to be of the highest quality, which is the importance of this code.
Before closing the event, the panel received some questions regarding the applicability of this code on a national level. The president of the CNDH highlighted that although it is only the investigative team from the CNDH that is obliged to abide by the rules set forward in the book, there is not yet a national consensus on the adherence to these rules. However, he said that victims could reach out to the CNDH with their situation, and thus assuring that their case will be handled in accordance to these rules. Their hope is to expand the outreach of these rules on a national and regional level, which is the future of this project.