21st SESSION OF THE ASSEMBLY OF STATES PARTIES
6 December 2022
Name of the Event: Making Reparative Justice a Reality: Monitoring Visit to Northern Uganda and the Future of the Trust Fund for Victims (co-hosted by Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Uganda, and the Trust Fund for Victims)
Report by: Lilian Waldock, Program Manager, and Emma Bakkum, Assistant Counsel, PILPG
Highlights:
The September 2022 joint monitoring visit to Northern Uganda was key to understanding high-level decisions of the court and what is happening on the ground. It presented a great opportunity to understand what more can be done to support the victims, uniting justice in the courtroom with justice in the field.
“It is a characteristic of all the victims - stubborn optimism.” This was apparent during the monitoring visit to Northern Uganda. The takeaways of the delegates were clear: the work done by the TFV has been impactful and transformative, but more work needs to be done. The TFV needs increased funding to accommodate the commitments that have been made by the Court.
The side event highlighted some of the key recommendations for ‘the way forward’ for the Trust Fund for Victims. Firstly, increasing awareness of the work of the TFV and its connection to the work of the ICC. Secondly, the importance of soliciting funding from States Parties.
Speakers:
Ms. Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi, ASP President
Mr. Jackson Karugaba Kafuuzi, Deputy Attorney General of Uganda
Ms. Minou Josefina Tavárez Mirabal, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Trust Fund for Victims
H.E. Ambassador Brendan Rogers, Ambassador of Ireland to the Netherlands, Permanent Representative of Ireland to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)
Summary of the Event:
PILPG-ers Yvonne Dutton, Lilian Waldock, and Emma Bakkum attended this side event co-hosted by Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Uganda, and the Trust Fund for Victims, which reported on a monitoring visit to Northern Uganda organized by the Embassy of Ireland and the Trust Fund for Victims.
Mr. Andres Parmas, a member of the Board of Directors of the Trust Fund for Victims (TFV), opened the event by highlighting the value of the TFV - unique in bringing victims’ voices to the center. He went on to say that the establishment of the TFV marks a crucial change in the thinking patterns of the international community, with its victim-centered mandate of reparations and assistance. While the TFV’s work has been impactful, importance should be placed to raise the visibility of its work.
Video
A short video (available soon) showed images of the recent monitoring visit to Northern Uganda. Fourteen states (comprising thirteen countries and the EU, 64 delegates in total) met with victims from Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Northern Uganda from 13-17 September 2022. The monitoring visit provided delegates with the opportunity to witness first-hand the transformative work of the TFV.
The TFV has operated in Uganda since 2008 and has reached 60,000 direct beneficiaries and 350,000 indirect victims. The TFV spent 12.5 million across 22 districts to provide services to victims with injuries as a result of the conflict between the Government of Uganda and the LRA. Stories of LRA war victims are recounted including accounts of the killing of family members, maiming and purposeful disfigurement, landmine victims, victims of gun violence, abduction, and SGBV. What is highlighted by these voices is a need to extend the services of the TFV to the wider population. The effects of the war in Uganda are still felt. The power of the TFV is to ensure the involvement of victims, and the humanization of the criminal justice process, through services such as medical support, trauma counseling, livelihood empowerment initiative, and psychosocial support. One beneficiary summarized this with a practical quote: “I am now able to do some work and earn a living”.
Theirs are stories of rehabilitation and redemption. As a quote from the Report (“the silence of the gun does not mean the war is over”) on the visit states:
The silence of the gun does not mean the war is over. The effects of the war are still on - we have people who are physically not okay. We have seen people testifying that they were living with bullets in their flesh for over twenty years and bomb splints in their bodies. But with the coming of [these programs], through the support of the TFV, they have come back and they are different.
They have hope.
~ Okumu Robert, Chairperson of Laguri Sub Country Pader District
The monitoring visit was key to understanding high-level decisions of the court and what is happening on the ground. It presents a great opportunity to understand what more can be done to support the victims, uniting justice in the courtroom with justice in the field.
Panel Discussion
Sylvia Fernández de Gurmendi, ASP President, spoke about her earlier visit to Northern Uganda in 2017 when she was president of the ICC and how she sees the progression of these visits. She emphasized the importance of linking the two pillars of the court and the TFV. “In order to support, in order to understand, you really need to know.” These visits have generated some understanding of what the court is really about. Ms. Fernandez de Gurmendi highlighted the progress that she was able to see on projects implemented between 2017-2022.
Mr. Jackson Karugaba Kafuuzi, Deputy Attorney General of Uganda continued by expressing his gratitude for the work of the TFV and its supporters. He spoke specifically about the involvement of the Ugandan Government with the TFV. The war lasted for a long time and split the country in two: while one area was prospering, another was terrorized. The TFV has offered a form of reassurance that there is life after the conflict and that it is possible to re-skill and return to society. However, there is a lot to be done still in Uganda, he noted. The Government is in a conversation process (apart from TFV) on a “cattle corridor”, to give families support where the government is able to.
Ms. Minou Tavárez Mirabal reflected on the recent monitoring visit, in particular from the perspective of the Board of Directors of the TFV. She described the monitoring visit as unforgettable work. The mission achieved its overall objectives:
Reviewing the implementation of programs;
Gaining insight;
Raising awareness of the TFV’s work.
She furthermore saw it as a successful mission due to the commitment of the delegation and its excellent organization. It formed an opportunity to confirm that: “This is a characteristic of all the victims - stubborn optimism”.
H.E. Ambassador Brendan Rogers, Ambassador of Ireland to The Netherlands touched upon steps States Parties should be taking in support of the TFV. He underlined the need to bring the work of the TFV into the building beside us. To do so, States Parties need to raise awareness and bring that knowledge back. He noted the success of the last couple of days, to see and hear the work of the TFV being raised. The next step is “extra money”. The TFV has had 14 states who were transformed through the monitoring visit and who have brought that message back. It is now “up to us to talk to the State Parties”. We need to get the message across and show the power of the ICC - rehabilitation and reparation. “What impressed me was that the TFV was working with the communities, the parishes, and the districts”. He concluded by noting that the TFV should now think about how it can be effective, agile, and energetic, to get the funding to do what the TFV needs to be doing.
The Q&A part of the event covered several issues relevant to the TFV. The first question focused on the challenges the TFV faces. Ms. Mirabal referred to fundraising as the main challenge. The TFV requires large amounts of funding to do what it needs to be doing. The TFV solicits for it in both the public and private sectors. Another challenge is the visibility of the TFV. In particular, increasing funding, visibility, and communication of the TFV’s work and mission is important. A final challenge for the TFV is to learn from what it is doing in Uganda to strengthen its work in other places. The TFV is a very young institution and inevitably there is a lot to learn and a lot to implement. A challenge related to this is managing the expectations of victims. Ms. Fernández de Gurmendi added the challenge of sufficiently linking the soft power to the hard power of the Rome Statute System. Still, it is not always clear to communities that the Court is not just about retribution, but also about reparation and assistance. These two components need to be seen together. It is also important to clarify that the TFV’s assistance program does not relate to a conviction. H.E. Ambassador Rogers noted the importance of extra funding to scale up the TFV’s programs. Additionally, he underlined the need for continued “software” that builds the coalition of supporters for the TFV. As positions change, similar commitment from States Parties delegates engaged in and with the TFV is needed.
Building on the challenge of funding, Dr. Yvonne Dutton inquired into the specific and concrete amounts of funding the TFV may need to implement its programs. Ms. Mirabal responded to this difficult question by noting the TFV raises 2.5-2.7 million euros per year. This is not a significant amount, especially considering that the Court may order reparations for an amount that is much more. Thus, whatever is raised will not be sufficient. TFV representatives, including Acting Executive Director Ms. Franziska Eckelmans, further clarified the two streams of funding the TFV receives. The TFV’s functioning is funded through the ICC’s budget, amounting to 3.2. million currently. The TFV hopes this will be increased to 3.8 million during this ASP. The TFV’s funding for implementing programs comes from voluntary contributions only. Kevin Kelly added that every payment of the TFV’s admin budget goes to delivering programs on the ground. The core budget from the ICC covers program delivery costs. The TFV operates in a slim operation. Every penny of donated money goes to projects directly. Ms. Eckelmans added that a minimum number for funding would be 2-4 million for next year, but that the TFV can easily scale up to 7 million - all programs are running at a minimal level. Finally, TFV Board member Ibrahim Yillah raised two issues regarding the TFV’s capacity and resources. First, he offered some thoughts on considering secondments to support the work of the TFV. Second, he raised the idea of collaborating with universities.
Ms. Eckelmans closed the event by speaking to the transformative impact of the TFV’s work: “victims deal with their harm generations that come after, they are aggressive and they don’t know what love is. We are trying to mitigate these really negative transgenerational impacts.”