Proactive consideration of and engagement with children before ICC: New Policy on Children

• In Event: International Research on Juvenile Justice

Abstract

The ICC has jurisdiction to prosecute offenders of core crimes who are over 18 years old (art. 26). However, the ICC reserves an important place for the protection of child victims or witnesses of international crimes. According to the Preamble of the Rome Statute, children form a large part of the victims of “ unimaginable atrocities that deeply shock the conscience of humanity”. The ICC gives an important place to the protection of child especially child soldiers. In addition, it aims for procedural protection for child victims or witnesses to ensure the effectiveness of investigations and prosecutions (art. 54). A policy on children was already presented in 2016 by the ICC. But, in the 2016 policy, this procedural protection has been less present. However, the new general policy of the Office of the Prosecutor on children of 2023, considering article 12 of the CRC, provides different considerations on the proactive engagement of children in the different phases of the trial. In this presentation, we study this Policy to analyze children's right to participate in justice before the ICC. In addition to this new policy, we study ICC jurisprudence and the respect for these procedural rights in practice.

Authors

• Hesam Seyyed Esfahani, Université de Moncton

• Ahmad Kabbaha, University of Jordan