Victims' Participation Rights within the International Criminal Court: A Critical Overview
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VICTIMS' PARTICIPATION RIGHTS WITHIN THE INTERNATIONAL
CRIMINAL COURT: A CRITICAL OVERVIEW
MIRIAM COHEN*
I. INTRODUCTION
The formation of the International Criminal Court marked an important
change in international criminal justice. The Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court (hereinafter Rome Statute)' not only established the
International Criminal Court (hereinafter the ICC or the Court) as a permanent
institution with jurisdiction over persons for the most serious crimes of
international concern,2 but also brought about changes to the international
criminal scene,3 namely a completely new system for victims' participation in
criminal proceedings4 during the trial phase as well as the pre-trial phase.5 One of
the Court's main function is the establishment of the truth and in this sense
participation of victims may contribute to the accomplishment of this goal.6
The recognition of victims' participatory rights in criminal proceedings is a
novelty in international criminal law.7 Victims' right to participate in the
*LLB (Universit6 de Montr6al); LL.M. (Cantab). The research of the Court's jurisprudence is up-
to-date until September 2008. This article builds upon a research project pursued at the University of
Cambridge in 2007. I want to thank Dr. Roger O'Keefe and Jane Bestor for reading an earlier version
of this article and providing insightful comments. All errors of fact and interpretation are my own.
1. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, adopted July 17, 1998, 2187 U.N.T.S. 90,
37 I.L.M. 1002 (entered into force July 1, 2002) [hereinafter Rome Statute].
2. Id. art. 1.
3. In comparison to the ad hoc international criminal tribunals preceding the International
Criminal Court [hereinafter ICC or the Court] the differences are numerous. This study will focus on
the provisions relating to participatory rights.
4. See Rome Statute, supra note 1, art. 68. See also Carsten Stahn et al., Participation of Victims
in Pre-Trial Proceedings of the ICC, 4 J. INT'L CRIM, JUST. 219 (2006) [hereinafter Stahn et al.;
Gerard J. Mekjian & Mathew C. Varughese, Hearing the Victim's Voice: Analysis of Victims Advocate
Participation in the Trial Proceeding of the International Criminal Court, 17 PACE INT'L L. R. 1 (2005)
[hereinafter Mekjian & Varughese]; Timothy Kuhner, The Status of Victims in the Enforcement of
International Criminal Law, 6 OR. REV, INT'L L. 95 (2004). See generally Gilbert Bitti & Hakan
Friman, Participation of Victims in the Proceedings, in THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT:
ELEMENTS OF CRIMES AND RULES OF PROCEDURE AND EVIDENCE 456 (Roy S. Lee ed., 2001).
5. In this study, the author will not differentiate between the trial and the pre-trial phase
pertaining to victims' participation in proceedings, but rather study the subject in a general approach.
6. David Donat-Cattin, Article 68 Protection of Victims and Witness and their Participation in
the Proceedings, in COMMENTARY ON THE ROME STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT:
OBSERVERS' NOTES ARTICLE BY ARTICLE 1275, 1300 (Otto Triffterer ed., 2d ed. 2008).
7. WILLIAM A. SCHABAS, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT 328 (3d
ed. 2007) [hereinafter SCHABAS]. See also Emily Haslam, Victim Participation at the International](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/denilp37&div=20&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Victims' Participation Rights within the International Criminal Court: A Critical Overview
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