About the author(s):
Katharine Fortin is an Associate Professor at Utrecht University where she teaches IHL and IHRL. Before joining Utrecht University, she worked at the ICTY, ICC and Norton Rose Fulbright. She is the author of The Accountability of Armed Groups under Human Rights Law (Oxford University Press, 2017) which won the 2018 Lieber Prize. She has written widely about the framework of law that applies to armed groups in non-international armed conflicts and is one of the editors of the Armed Groups and International Law blog.
The trial in the case of The Prosecutor v. Dominic Ongwen is opening today before Trial Chamber IX of the International Criminal Court (ICC), composed of presiding Judge Bertram Schmitt, Judge Péter Kovács, and Judge Raul Cano Pangalangan. Click here for the livefeed which will resume at 14.30.
The trial opened this morning with the reading of the charges against Mr Ongwen. The Judges verified that the accused person understood the nature of the charges. The Judges asked him whether he makes an admission of guilt or pleads not guilty to the charges. Oral opening statements will be delivered by the Office of the Prosecutor and the Legal Representatives of Victims.
The trial will then resume on 16 January 2017, when the Prosecution will begin to present its evidence and call its witnesses before the judges. At its request, the Defence will make its opening statements at the beginning of the presentation of its evidence.
Background: As alleged former Commander in the Sinia Brigade of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Dominic Ongwen is accused of 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to attacks against the civilian population in the former IDP camps of Lukodi, Pajule, Odek and Abok between October 2003 and June 2004, including: attacks against civilian population; murder and attempted murder; rape; sexual slavery; forced marriage; torture; cruel treatment of civilian and other inhumane acts; enslavement; outrage upon personal dignity; conscription and use of children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities; pillaging; destruction of property and persecution. It is further alleged that from at least 1 July 2002 until 31 December 2005, Dominic Ongwen, Joseph Kony, and the other Sinia Brigade commanders were part of a common plan to abduct women and girls in northern Uganda that were then used as forced wives and sex slaves, tortured, raped and made to serve as domestic help; and to conscript and use children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities in the LRA.
Ongwen is the first former child abductee to face charges before the ICC.
Mr Ongwen was transferred to the Court’s custody on 21 January 2015 pursuant to an ICC warrant of arrest.