Victim-survivors and the ICC: An intersectional analysis of the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo

• In Event: The Logic of "Care" and Abolition

Abstract

The prevalence of sexual violence during times of war has historically been obscured by its own inevitability, with convictions at the International Criminal Court remaining equally elusive. In the two decades since its inception the Court has secured only two upheld convictions for sexualised war violence, in the case against Bosco Ntaganda in 2019 and Dominic Ongwen in 2022, yet how these proceedings impact the victim-survivors of these atrocities continues to be overlooked. This study interrogates the judgment in The Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda to examine how the Court interacts with victim-survivors of sexual atrocities given the immense stigmatisation and shame attached to these crimes. An intersectional lens highlights how victim-survivors must navigate feminised, infantilised and racialised stereotypes to receive the complete and legitimate status of being a victim. It finds that antithetical to the implementation of protective measures to assist victim-survivors interacting with the Court, these mechanisms cannot compensate for the harms that are intrinsic to adversarial systems of law.

Author

• Natalie Hēni Maihi Fennell, University of Queensland