[fblike]

Follow us on facebook

Justice Hub
  • My Justice
  • News
  • Insights
  • Justice Explained
  • About Us
No Result
View All Result
Justice Hub
  • My Justice
  • News
  • Insights
  • Justice Explained
  • About Us
No Result
View All Result
Justice Hub
No Result
View All Result
Home Insights

Does gender matter at the ASP?

December 17, 2014
in Insights
0
0
Does gender matter at the ASP?

ASP ICC

FacebookTwitterLinkedInWhatsappEmail

“I’ve never had to do this before,” said one delegate to me – “specifically vote for a male candidate”. Because of the arcane rules for how judges are elected for the ICC, in the first couple of rounds a male candidate had to be selected.

In the end, after 22 – yes, 22 rounds of voting – all six candidates were selected. And all the new judges at the ICC are men. The last – the Hungarian judge – definitely had something that very few women judges could compete with – a moustache.

Such a clean sweep along gender lines got me thinking: does gender really matter at the ICC? We have a new prosecutor – a woman – but the registrar, the president of the court and of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) are all men.

Nearly every state mentioned sexual and gender-based crimes (SGBV) when they made their statement to the assembly. SGBV is definitely the new buzz term in international fora. You can’t afford to go against the likes of Angelina Jolie in your efforts to support prosecution of these crimes when they occur in the context of conflict.

But one organization has been consistent in its championing of this issue – the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice.

Their annual scorecard for the court has changed from a 16-page booklet to a 284-page “encyclopedia” as their head, Brigid Inder told a packed evening launch party.

What’s interesting is how they subject the ICC to the strict lens of gender justice. For instance:

  • 46% of the applicants for individuals who want to be recognized as victims were from females in 2014 – an increase of 8%.
  • In 2013 ,more than half of the “overall charges for sexual and gender-based violence sought by the OTP” were dismissed before trial. But “this year all charges have successfully progressed to the trial stage”.

They are also very pleased that the ICC is the first international court or tribunal to have a prosecution policy on sexual and gender-based crimes.

Brigid chaired a session at which Fatou Bensouda explained her real commitment to implement that policy.

Inder plays an interesting inside-outside role: she’s head of an NGO that lobbies the ICC. But she’s also the prosecutor’s special adviser on these issues.

What I wonder though is how deep the commitment of the states really is to this area. In the end they voted in six male judges to the ICC, even though after the first rounds they weren’t required to do so. How much attention will these men pay to the issues of sexual violence in conflict?

If you want to see Janet’s first blog post on the strangeness of being at the ASP, read it here. And here’s the link to her second blog post on competition.

Photos: ASP/Flickr 

Tags: Assembly of States Parties (ASP)ICC (International Criminal Court)Justice Insights
ShareTweetShareSendSend

Janet H. Anderson

Janet H. Anderson is the Project Manager at Justice Hub.

Related Posts

How do We Create a Path to Justice in Yemen?
Featured

How do We Create a Path to Justice in Yemen?

by Mohammad Hadi Zakerhossein
July 17, 2019
0
622

On July 1 2019, the Iranian Center for International Criminal Law (ICICL)  filed a communication under Article 15 of the...

Read more
Victim Fatigue in the case of Thomas Kwoyelo

Victim Fatigue in the case of Thomas Kwoyelo

July 1, 2019
360
There can be no equivocation on the obligation to save people at risk of death in the Mediterranean

There can be no equivocation on the obligation to save people at risk of death in the Mediterranean

June 27, 2019
226
Calling Sexual Violence What It Is: Advancing the accountability agenda

Calling Sexual Violence What It Is: Advancing the accountability agenda

June 19, 2019
342
Victimhood and Responsibility for Forced Sterilisation in Peru

Victimhood and Responsibility for Forced Sterilisation in Peru

June 12, 2019
591

Janet H. Anderson

Janet H. Anderson is the Project Manager at Justice Hub.

Justice Hub

Justice Hub reflects conversations on accountability and access to justice. We feature change-makers, researchers, and justice activists who make concrete the abstract concepts of Justice and Rule of Law. Justice Hub - alongside our sister project Hague Talks is powered by the Hague Project Peace and Justice – a network of over 200 Hague-based organisations working on peace and justice issues.

Follow Us

Quick Links

  • Featured
  • My Justice
  • News
  • Insights
  • Justice Explained
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy

 

  HPPJ Forum Login
Creative Commons Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
No Result
View All Result
  • My Justice
  • News
  • Insights
  • Justice Explained
  • About Us

© 2018 Justice Hub

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Fill the forms bellow to register

*By registering into our website, you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Login

Lost password?
Create New Account
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.

REPUBLISHING TERMS

You may republish this article online or in print under our Creative Commons license. You may not edit or shorten the text, you must attribute the article to Aeon and you must include the author’s name in your republication.

If you have any questions, please email nsharafa@gmail.com

License

Creative Commons License AttributionCreative Commons Attribution
Does gender matter at the ASP?