18TH SESSION OF THE ASSEMBLY OF STATES PARTIES TO THE ROME STATUTE
Day 5 (6 December 2019)
Name of the Event: In the Aftermath of ISIL: Community Hearings for Gender-Based Violence Survivors and their Communities in Iraq (Side Event co-hosted by Canada and MADRE)
Overview by: Signe Wolf Børm, Junior Research Associate PILPG-NL
Main Highlights:
Community hearings are necessary to reintegrate victims of crimes committed by Daesh into their communities, as well as to increase awareness and to prevent similar events from occurring in the future.
The Iraqi people are dissatisfied with the leaders of ISIS being prosecuted for their membership of the organisation, rather than for the specific crimes against the people.
Summary of the Event:
Lisa Davis opened this side event on community hearings for survivors of gender-based violence in Iraq by underlining the necessity to achieve justice for the victims of Daesh. She stated that women need to be recognized and have their stories heard. Having a public hearing will assist in building support for criminal trials in the future, and encourages the reintegration of the victims of gender-based crimes and sexual assault. Lastly, Ms. Davis stated that accountability does not need to start in the Hague and that community hearings can promote stability and reintegration.
Renja Alaaldin, Iraqi advocate for MADRE, explained that MADRE started its project on justice and accountability through community hearings, because it believed people want truth and reconciliation, and because community hearings can be helpful in raising awareness, increasing public recognition, and to promote accountability.
Lisa Davis, associate professor of law at the University of New York; Co-Director of the Human Rights & Gender Justice Clinic; and senior legal advisor for MADRE, explored how community hearings can bring about peace, accountability, and reconciliation. She stated that the current situation in Iraq is characterized by a great civil dissatisfaction relating to accountability, jobs, and the killings of protesters. She noted that the people of Iraq want accountability for the crimes committed by ISIS. The Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) has documented hundreds of sexual and gender-based crimes and handed over documentation to the ICC and the Office of the Prosecutor. The documentation has been stored by evidence collecting bodies such as the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh/ISIL (UNITAD) and the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria (IIIM). Ms. Davis highlighted the importance of accountability, justice, and for victims and survivors to have a chance to tell their stories. For the situation as it is, community hearings provide for reconciliation, the start of a healing process, and an opportunity to understand the greater picture of the conflict. Ms. Davis explained that these proceedings allow taking account of the events that have taken place within the country, allow academic and policymakers to consider the root causes of the conflict, which laws are lacking, as well as, to consider what the community needs to satisfy the needs of the individuals displaced due to the conflict.
Ms. Davis went on to state that there is a problem with the reintegration of women living under ISIS. This is because the association with ISIS makes reintegration into their communities almost impossible. A community hearing, however, could allow communities to understand the issues and allow for reintegration, as history in this context has taught us that tribunals have worked, and therefore also can work in Iraq. Ms. Davis lastly urged to act now, because of the risk of the cycle of violence repeating itself.
Yanar Mohammed, president of the organization Women's Freedom spoke next. Ms. Mohammed discussed the situation of women enslaved by ISIS, explaining that these women were left without homes and family because they are shamed by their communities as a result of their forced marriages, and the children they gave birth to as a result of rape within the forced marriages. She stated that women should not have to live with this shame, they should be reintegrated into their communities, and in doing so, know that the future of their children is also secured. Ms. Mohammed noted that the international community should put a system in place and that this goal could only be ensured if the community is willing to recognize, respect, and support the women, as the women find themselves in a situation in which they are losing their wellbeing and their health altogether. A community hearing could be capable of ensuring survivors of these crimes to not have to hide anymore because they will be recognized, and it will turn them into a survivor in the eye of the community rather than a co-perpetrator. Such a hearing should furthermore lead to women affected receiving reparations to ensure that they can provide for their children and their future. A community hearing is moreover a step toward preventing the same acts happening again in the future - but this requires recognition first.
Agnes Callamard, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions spoke last and in an eloquent manner told the audience about the observation she had made on the matter. Ms. Callamard had visited Iraq right after the end of the war in 2017, when she realized that little attention was given to justice and reparations but even less attention was given to the victims, who will rarely speak in a trial. It was furthermore pointed out that the ongoing trials against the leaders of ISIS are based on their membership of the organization (which if they are convicted will lead to a death sentence), but not on the specific atrocities committed against civilians and particularly women.
Ms. Callamard noted that there about 170 mass graves in Iraq related to the recent war crimes. There are many more graves however and there are stories that come with all of them, but so do the Daesh soldier currently detained in the Iraqi prisons. The stories being told now, Ms. Callamard said do not to give the closure necessary. The justice necessary for the people in Iraq, as well as Syria, has not been prioritized by their governments nor the international community, she noted. Ms. Callamard clarified that it was not only the Yazidi women, but similar situations applied to Shia, Suni, and Christian women, who have not come forward to tell their stories yet because they have not been given the space to do so. These women should be enabled to tell their stories and in the current climate, civil society will be the main actors towards promoting justice. Ms. Callamard stated in regard to community hearings that they are not capable of replacing formal justice, but that these are necessary to start breaking the current system and the lack of care for justice. She concluded that civil society will be a key factor in doing so. She further mentioned that the Iraqi people are not satisfied with the current form of justice being done, as it was expressed that, killing ISIS leaders without trial is not good enough. Ms. Callamard explained that people recognize that community hearings will allow the truth to be spoken, which in turn will allow communities to better understand and reintegrate victims. To conclude Ms. Callamard noted that “this has been the decade of impunity. Embarking on a new decade next year, I am asking everyone to make the next decade the one of accountability.”