On the picture Judge Olga Herrera Carbuccia. Photography by Kim Vermaat.
On October 21, 2016, Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or “the Court”) approved and ordered to start the implementation of a plan submitted by the Trust Fund for Victims (“TFV”) for symbolic collective reparations for the victims in relation with the case of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo.
Mr Lubanga was found guilty of the war crimes of the enlistment and conscription of children under the age of 15 in Ituri, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The TFV was ordered to file a report every three months.
The Chamber agreed with the TFV that the implementation of symbolic reparations “paves the way for the social acceptance of reparations awards in the affected communities”. The Chamber will issue its decision on collective reparations programmes, which are not of symbolic nature, in due course.
Trial Chamber II, composed of Judges Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, Presiding Judge, Olga Herrera Carbuccia, and Péter Kovács, considered the views presented by the different participants during the hearings conducted on 11 and 13 October 2016, carefully studied the TFV filing of 19 September 2016, and concurred with the TFV that the proposed symbolic reparations project “provide for an enabling environment to develop and implement service-based collective reparations awards” and “creates a safe environment for victims to come forward and voluntarily participate in the service-based collective awards without undue fear for their safety or reputation”.
The Chamber also expressed its wishes to turn the TFV’s attention to study the possibility of expanding its project beyond the five proposed localities referred to in paragraph 39 of its 19 September 2016 Filing, in order to cover, to the extent possible, the Ituri region.
