Giving context to the ICC's Ongwen reparations order: atrocity victims’ needs in Northern Uganda

• In Event: Victimology Working Group Panel 2 Consequences of Victimization

Abstract

In the Ongwen reparations order of February 28th 2024, the ICC Trial Chamber ordered reparations against Mr Dominic Ongwen to the tune of €52,429,000. The ICC’s Reparations Orders have repeatedly stressed that ‘the Court shall take into account the needs of the victims … (i)n all matters related to reparations’. The Ongwen award itself mentions victims’ needs 40 times, repeatedly emphasising their importance.

Despite this, neither the Court nor the ICC’s reparations arm, the Trust Fund for Victims, have defined what is meant when ICC organs use the words “victims’ needs”. Furthermore, understandings of what Ugandan victims’ needs ‘actually are’ in an empirical sense are very limited. This ambiguity is representative of broader confusion, for example, one regularly encounters ambiguous talk of victims’ needs in the broader international criminal and transitional justice milieux, while there has been very little empirical work in post atrocity contexts which has contemplated victims’ real-world needs.

The author has recently submitted an article for publication which presents a theory of atrocity victims needs. Furthermore, he has recently returned from fieldwork in Uganda, where he discussed with victim-survivors’ how they perceive their own needs. This presentation will consider both theoretical aspects, arguing for a common understanding and definition of victims’ needs in the international criminal and transitional justice spaces, and will provide insights from the field in Uganda. Both can go a long way to ensuring that Mr Ongwen’s €52,429,000 is wisely spent.

Author

• James Henry John Rischbieth, KU Leuven