ICC Upholds Reparations Order To Victims of Ongwen

The Appeals Chamber at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has upheld the order of reparations granted by the trial chamber to victims of the convicted former Lord’s Resistance Army rebel commander, Dominic Ongwen. Ongwen was ordered by the ICC Trial Chamber IX on February 28, 2024, to compensate victims of his crimes in Northern Uganda, a record sum of 52.4 million euros (approximately 200 billion shillings).

His defence lawyer, Chief Charles Achaleke Taku, however, in April last year appealed against the reparations order, listing 15 grounds of contention and requesting the suspension of its implementation. Taku highlighted among others, that the court erred in law by refusing to order the disclosure of the names of persons in the sample of victims’ dossier, and also erred in law by its dismissal of the Defence’s arguments about Ugandan national proceedings related to reparations for persons from Abok Internally Displaced People’s Camp.

Other grounds of appeal were that the court in delivering the reparation order erred in law and fact by extending the potential indirect victim pool by creating the “African extended family exception”, thereby opening the floodgates to anyone of any distant relation to a direct victim to collect reparations. However, in an appeals judgment delivered by Presiding Judge Solomy Balungi Bossa, the appeals chamber rejected 11 grounds of the appeal raised by Ongwen’s representative.

The Appeals Chamber, in its verdict, rejected the first ground of appeal in which Ongwen’s lawyer argued that the court infringed on Ongwen’s right to a fair proceeding by not disclosing the names of all 205 persons in the dossier. Judge Bosa, in the ruling, however, noted that the trial chamber had identified the danger that the disclosure of the identity of potential beneficiaries might cause, arguing that despite the non-disclosure, the defence was able to make its observations on the victim's dossiers.

“The defence has therefore failed to demonstrate that it was unable to make a fair assessment and that it is right to conduct a meaningful review of the victim's dossiers and that its right to conduct a meaningful review of the victim's dossiers was unduly affected. The appeal chamber rejects the first ground of appeal,” Judge Bosa ruled. The appeals chamber also rejected ground three of the appeal, arguing that the defense did not identify any error in the trial chamber's abruption of the affirmation presumptions of victimhood and harm.

They argued that the trial chamber considered victimhood and harm as two distinct elements, both of which must be cumulatively met for a person to be eligible to benefit from reparations. Also rejected were the Fourth, eleventh, and twelfth grounds of appeal in which the defense avers error about the trial chamber's consideration of the concept of extended family and issues concerning the complementary role of the traditional and cultural mechanisms.

“The appeal chamber considers that the defense has failed to show any errors in the projections on indirect victims of the attacks. Regarding the principle of complementarity, to the extent that the defense argues that the traditional and cultural mechanisms should be incorporated into the court's statutory framework, its argument has already been rejected on appeal,” Judge Bosa ruled.

Other grounds rejected included the 13th ground of appeal in which the defence contended the court erred in determining that four participating victims qualified, on a balance of probabilities, as victims of Ongwen. Other Judges who presided over the appeals judgment were Judge Tomoko Akane, Judge Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza, Judge Gocha Lordkipanidze, and Judge Erdenebalsuren Damdin.

End of legal hurdle

Scott Bartell, the Programme Manager at the ICC Trust Fund for Victims (TFV), expressed a sigh of relief following the appeals ruling and described it as an end to the last legal hurdle in the way of the reparation. “Hopefully, reparation is expected to proceed as soon as funding is available,” Bartell told Uganda Radio Network in an interview Monday.

Bartell noted that while the actual date for registering the potential victims for reparation hasn’t yet commenced, all the processes towards the registration had begun last year. The ICC estimates the number of potentially eligible direct and indirect victims to be approximately 49,772 victims in the four case locations of Lukodi in Gulu district, Abok in Oyam district, Pajule in Pader district and Odek in Omoro district.

Ongwen, who attended the appeals judgment on reparations digitally, is serving 25 years in jail in Norway.  He was convicted of 61 crimes comprising crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Northern Uganda between July 1 2002 and December 31 2005.