Originally Published on Friday, 16 December 2011

At the on going ASP 10 meeting in New York, the second day of the plenary session was dedicated to the elections of ICC judges. The three new ICC judges elected to date at the ASP 10 are:

1. Miriam DEFENSOR-SANTIAGO (the Philippines)
2. Anthony Thomas Aquinas CARMONA (Trinidad and Tobago)
3. Robert FREMR (Czech Republic)

The CICC organized an African Regional Meeting with government delegates, representatives of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor and members of civil society. Chaired by Francis Dako, CICC Africa Regional Coordinator, presentations were made by civil society representatives from Kenya (ICJ-Kenya), Uganda (HURINET-Uganda), Cote D’Ivoire (Cote D’Ivoire Coalition for the ICC), Nigeria (Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre–Nigeria), DRC (CICC Francophone Africa Situations) and Amnesty International. Issues touched upon included Rome Statute ratification, the status of implementing legislation and cooperation, among others. States delegates from the DRC, Kenya, and Liberia also made interventions on some of the issues raised during the session, including the importance of the ICC engaging with African Head of States. For more information on ICC and Africa, visit: http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/?mod=region&idureg=1

The Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice hosted an event to launch the 6th Gender Report Card on the International Criminal Court for 2011. The launch was attended by states delegates, United Nations (UN) officials, ICC officials, media and NGO representatives. Speakers included Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor-elect of the ICC, Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, and Brigid Inder, Executive Director of the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice. The Gender Report Card analyses the institutional developments of the ICC throughout 2011, as well the Court’s substantive work and jurisprudence, with a focus on cases where gender-based crimes have been charged or where these issues have arisen during the legal proceedings, as well as those decisions affecting victims and witnesses appearing before the Court. The Gender Report Card on the International Criminal Court 2011 will be available shortly at: http://www.iccwomen.org/publications/index.php. For more information on the work of Women’s Initiative for Gender Justice visit: http://www.iccwomen.org/

In an event entitled “Victims, Reparations and the ICC: Challenges and Opportunities”, organized by the Victims Rights Working Group and sponsored by Finland, panelists Yoshiki Ogawa (Focal point of the Study Group on Governance), Jonathan O’Donohue (Amnesty International), Lyn Parker (Chef de Cabinet of the President of the ICC) and Pieter de Baan (Executive Director of the Trust Fund for Victims of the ICC) and Andre Kito (Coordinator of the DRC Coalition for the ICC) spoke about the consideration of reparations by the Study Group on Governance, the principles for reparations, the reparations mandate and outlook of the Trust Fund for Victims, and the perspective of victims in the DRC. The panel was moderated by Miia Aro-Sanchez (Facilitator of The Hague Working Group on Victims’ issues and the Trust Fund for Victims). Following questions to the panelists, the ICC Registrar, Silvana Arbia, presented closing remarks on the work of the Registry relating to victims. For more information on the Victims Rights Working Group, visit: http://www.vrwg.org/

NGO PAPERS AND STATEMENTS

1. All Coalition Team Papers and individual members’ recommendations to the Tenth ASP can be found here, , http://coalitionfortheicc.org/?mod=asp10

2. “THE IMPLEMENTATION OF VICTIMS’ RIGHTS BEFORE THE ICC Issues and Concerns Presented by the Victims’ Rights Working Group on the occasion of the 10th Session of the Assembly of States Parties 12 – 21 December 2011, VRWG, December 2011, http://coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/2011_VRWG_ASP10with_Annex.pdf

3. Gender Report Card 2011, Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice, December 2011, http://www.iccwomen.org/publications/index.php. [available shortly]

4. CICC Team Papers and recommendations to the Tenth ASP, December 2011, http://coalitionfortheicc.org/?mod=asp10

5. Latest version of the ASP Journal, 12-21 December 2011http://icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/asp_docs/ASP10/ASP10-Journal-ENG.pdf

6. ASP Newsletter. December 2011, http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/asp_docs/Publications/Newsletter-ASP-7-ENG-web.pdf

7. Outgoing remarks by Christian Wenaweser, ASP President (2009-2011), 12 December 2011, http://icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/asp_docs/ASP10/Statements/ASP10-ST-PASP-CW-CLRemarks-ENG.pdf