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| |  | | Thomas Lubanga Dyilo | | | context : | DRC  | | judgement place : | ICC | | status : | On trial | | particulars : | Arrested in March 2005; tansferred to the ICC on 17 March 2006; confirmation of charges on 29 January 2007; trial began on 26 January 2009 | | position : | Leader of the Union des patriotes congolais (UPC) |
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| | | | Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is the first person to be placed in the custody of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In April 2004, the Democratic Republic of Congo as a State Party to the Rome Statute referred the situation in its territory to the Prosecutor of the ICC, in accordance with Article 14 of the Rome Statute. The Prosecutor thus had to conduct investigations in order to determine whether one or more specific persons should be charged with crimes which fall under the jurisdiction of the Court. The Congolese authorities for their part are obliged to cooperate with the ICC. The Prosecutor had already been following the situation in the DRC, and in particular in the Ituri region, since 2003.
PARTICIPATION OF VICTIMES IN THE PROCEEDINGS
On 31 July 2006, the ICC admitted a request by three victims to participate in the proceedings against Thomas Lubanga Dyilo. The court found that there was sufficient reason to believe that the three applicants were victims of crimes committed by Thomas Lubanga Dyilo and ordered all public documents regarding the proceedings to be delivered to the legal representatives of the victims.
This decision, which allows victims to participate from the very beginning of the investigation, constitutes an important development with respect to the role of the victims of breaches of international criminal law in such proceedings. Neither of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and for the former Yugoslavia, nor the Special Court for Sierra Leone allowed for such forms of participation by victims. The proceedings against Thomas Lubanga Dyilo allow, for the very first time, the possibility for victims of international crimes the right to explain their views and concerns to the Court, where their personal interests are at stake.
Legal history was made in the Netherlands when the International Criminal Court put on trial its first suspect, Thomas Lubango Dyilo, a Congolese warlord accused of recruiting child soldiers. The Lubango case represents the first proceedings of the International Criminal Court as well as the first trial in international law where victims have a right to participate in the proceedings.
Mr. Lubanga, the founder and leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots in the Ituri region of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), entered a plea of not guilty. He is accused of war crimes, including conscripting and enlisting child soldiers and then using them in hostilities between September 2002 and August 2003. The International Criminal Court imposed a stay of proceedings in June 2008 because the prosecution failed to disclose certain documents that had been obtained the documents under conditions of confidentiality. But in November 2008 the ICC reversed that decision because the reasons for the stay had “fallen away.”
As this trial moves forward attention must turn to encouraging additional countries to become parties to the ICC. The United States signed the treaty establishing the court but "unsigned" the treaty and has not become a party (because of unsupported fears that U.S. soldiers would be brought before the International Criminal Court). Hopefully the start of this trial will provide some momentum toward U.S. ratification of the treaty. | |    | |  |  | | nationality : | | | Congo, the democratic republic of the | | | date of birth : | | | 29.12.1960 | | | last time seen : | | | The Hague (Netherlands) | | | period of charges : | | | 09.2002 - 13.08.2003 | | | judgement period : | | | 26.01.2009 | | | charges : | | | War crimes | | | profile last modified : | | | 25.01.2010 |
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