Sarah Nouwen

Emmanuel College

COMPLEMENTARITY IN THE LINE OF FIRE The ICC’s Complementarity as a Catalyst for Domestic Proceedings: A Perspective from the Field   This study examines to what extent the ‘complementarity principle’ as embodied in the admissibility criteria of the International Criminal Court (ICC) functions as a catalyst for domestic proceedings. Unlike most of the literature on complementarity, the perspective of this thesis is primarily ‘from the field’: it studies the possible catalysing effect of the ICC’s complementarity principle in the first four states in respect of which the Prosecutor has opened an investigation. In concrete terms, the principle of complementarity, as reflected in article 17 of the Rome Statute, dictates that the ICC can exercise its jurisdiction over a case only if there is no state genuinely investigating or prosecuting it or no state which has done so. The most evident function of the rules embodying complementarity is thus simply to indicate the circumstances in which the Court can ‘backstop’ domestic criminal justice systems, which have a primary right and responsibility to investigate and prosecute the crimes within the Court’s jurisdiction (genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and, once defined, aggression). But it has been suggested that the relevance of the principle goes beyond technical questions of the admissibility of cases before the Court. It has been hypothesised that complementarity can function as a catalyst for domestic proceedings, contributing to the aim of ending impunity without the Court’s having to step in. The assumption is that the principle attempts to reconcile international justice with state sovereignty and that states, keen on protecting their sovereignty, will try to avoid ICC interference by doing what otherwise the ICC would do, namely investigate and prosecute. That is, casting their shadow before them, those of the Statute’s rules on admissibility which embody complementarity could encourage states to initiate domestic proceedings. They could also be a catalyst for reform of the national justice system as a whole if states consider such reform necessary in order to meet the standards of being willing and able genuinely to conduct proceedings, in the words of article 17. The thesis analyses whether and how complementarity has worked as a catalyst for proceedings and reform in Uganda and Sudan. The situations in the two countries show some remarkable similarities, but there are also important differences, such as the way in which the situations were referred to the Court. They provide a valuable testing ground for the domestic playing out of complementarity.  

Start Date: 2006/10.

End Date: 2009/10.

2006-	Cambridge University, PhD student International Law
2004-2005	Cambridge University, MPhil International Relations
1999-2004	Utrecht University, LLM Dutch Law (cum laude) specialisations: civil law and international public law
2002	University of Cape Town, LLM course human rights law University of Western Cape, LLM course transitional law
1998-1999	Utrecht University, propaedeutics Dutch Law (cum laude)
1992-1998	Grammar school Gymnasium Erasmianum Rotterdam
Workexperience, traineeships and internships
2005-2006	Aug-Aug: Netherlands Embassy Khartoum, Legal and Political Advisor (good governance, rule of law) and consultant for the Assessment and Evaluation Commission on the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
2004	Febr-July: Netherlands Ministry for Foreign Affairs the Hague, Secretary to the Commission on Preemptive Action of the Advisory Council on International Affairs
2001-2004	Utrecht University, Research-assistant international law
2003	Oct-Dec: Loyens & Loeff (law firm) Rotterdam ,research international commercial arbitrations
2003	July-Sept: Plan International (INGO) Senegal, research on microfinance in Senegal
2003	Jan-March: Loyens & Loeff Paris, legal assistant in international commercial arbitrations
2000	Aug-Dec: Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations in New York, assistant to the ambassador for the Security Council
Prizes and scholarships
2006-2009	Gates Scholarship for PhD in international law in Cambridge
2005	Fellow of the Cambridge European Society
2004	Cambridge European Trust scholarship for MPhil in Cambridge
2004	“Talent scholarship” Netherlands government for study in Cambridge
1998	Nickel Erasmus Prize Gymnasium Erasmianum
1995	Finalist OCW-Shakespeare-competition
Other activities:
2006	Aug: Teaching international humanitarian law to lawyers in Darfur, Sudan
2006	March: presenting paper annual conference International Studies Association, San Diego
2004-	Reporter for the International Law Association (Berlin, Toronto)
2004	Organising and teaching a course Transitional Justice
2002	Teaching in townships of Cape Town

International Criminal Law (in particular courts and tribunals), International Human Rights Law,

Transitional Justice

Law on the Use of Force, Humanitarian Intervention,  Peacekeeping

United Nations

Rule of Law promotion

International Relations

Sudan

Uganda

Book chapters

“Finetuning Complementarity” in: B. Brown (ed.), Research Handbook on International Criminal Law, Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2009

 

“TeRecht in Utrecht” in: W.M.J. Bekkers, R.H. Koning, N.J. Vette (eds), Rechten in Utrecht: de academische studie in verleden, heden en toekomst (Deventer: Kluwer, 2002) (article for book about legal studies in Utrecht)

 

Academic articles

“The Responsibility to Protect in Practice: Efforts to Promote Human Rights in Darfur”, Urios Symposium “International and Regional Responsibility to Protect Human Rights – Crisis in Darfur”, 24(65) Merkourios Utrecht Journal of International and European Law (2007), 58-70

 

“Combining Ownership and Neutrality in the Prosecution of International Crimes: Theory and Reality of Mixed Tribunals”, 25(2) Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, (June 2007), 255-287

 

“Vier Jaar Internationaal Engagement met Darfur: een Overzicht; Voedselpakketten en Diplomaten, Toga’s en Blauwhelmen”, 61(2) Internationale Spectator (February 2007), 99-103, with M. Barends (on international interventions in Darfur)

 

“Sudan's Divided (and Divisive?) Peace Agreements”, 19 Hague Yearbook for International Law (2006), 113-134

 

“‘Hybrid Courts’: The Hybrid Category of a New Type of International Crimes Courts”, 2(2) Utrecht Law Review, December 2006, 190-214, http://www.utrechtlawreview.org/publish/articles/000033/article.pdf

 

“‘Gemengde’ Tribunalen en Hooggespannen Verwachtingen” (with A. Nollkaemper),

in: “Internationale straftribunalen”, 32(4) Justitiële Verkenningen (2006), 37-55 (on mixed

international criminal courts)

 

“The Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Immunity of Taylor: The Arrest

Warrant Case Continued”, 18(3) Leiden Journal of International Law (2005), 645-669

 

“De meest onmogelijke baan ter wereld: Secretaris-Generaal van de Verenigde Naties” VN Forum 1999 (article about different approaches UN Secretaries-General Boutros Ghali and Kofi Annan)

 

Working paper

“The catalysing effect of the International Criminal Court in Uganda”, Refugee Law Project Working Paper, forthcoming at www.refugeelawproject.org

 

 

Book reviews

‘Arguing Genocide’, Making sense of Darfur, Social Science Research Council,

http://www.ssrc.org/blogs/darfur/category/darfur/

 

“Rwanda”, 4(2) Cambridge Student Law Review (2008), 340-343

 

“Rwanda 1994 in Normen Vatten”, 62 (7/8) Internationale Spectator (July/August

2008),435-438 (on the legal approach to assigning responsibility for the Rwandan genocide)

 

“Soedan, Internationaal Humanitair Recht en de Mensenrechten”, 61 (11)

Internationale Spectator (November 2007), 573-574 (on the applicability of international

humanitarian and international human rights law in Sudan)

 

“De lange weg van een Surinaams dorp naar gerechtigheid”, 61 (9) Internationale Spectator (September 2007), 455-457 (on human rights violations in Suriname)

 

Op-eds

 “Arresting Bashir: How the ICC has Violated its own Statute” (with Mogogo Albanese), Making Sense of Darfur, http://www.ssrc.org/blogs/darfur/2009/03/10/arresting-bashir-how-the-icc-has-violated-its-own-statute/#comment-3021, 10 March 2009

 

“Steun het Strafhof maar blijf met Bashir praten” (with Sander van Niekerk), NRC Handelsblad, opinie, 3 March 2009 (on Dutch foreign policy after an ICC arrest warrant against the Sudanese President)

 

“Geen vrede zonder gerechtigheid?”, 62(12) Internationale Spectator (December 2008), 689-690 (No peace without justice?)

 

“Down-kind is tenminste zichzelf”, Trouw, de verdieping, opinie, 29 May 2004, 25 (on screening on Down Syndrome)

 

“Schuw Engels op universiteiten niet”, NRC Handelsblad, opinie, 27 November 2003, 8 (on the use of English at Dutch universities)

 

Journalistic articles

‘‘‘Summer” in Sudan’, LXXXVIII Emmanuel College Magazine, 2006, 91-101

 

“Mensenrechtentrainingen in Darfur: Kiemen zaaien voor een rechtsstaat”, Tertio,

12, April 2006, 7 (on rule of law in Darfur)

 

“Beginnende micro-economie steunt op Senegalese vrouwen”, Tertio, 17 September 2003, 5-6 (on microfinance in Senegal)

 

“Gehandicapten hebben talent voor liefde”, Tertio, 7 May 2003, 8-9 (interview with author of book about persons with disabilities)

 

 

Conference and seminar papers

 

Paper on the Catalysing Effect of Complementarity in Uganda, International Studies Association, New York, February 2009

 

Paper on the Catalysing Effect of Complementarity in Sudan, International Studies Association, New York, February 2009

 

Presentation on the International Criminal Court and Uganda, Refugee Law Project, Kampala, October 2008

 

“The Responsibility to Protect in Practice: Efforts to Promote Human Rights in Darfur”, Urios Symposium “International and Regional Responsibility to Protect Human Rights – Crisis in Darfur”, Utrecht, November 2007

 

Paper on the Sudanese Peace Processes, International Studies Association, Chicago, March 2007

 

Presentation on the International Response to the Darfur crisis, Utrecht University, February 2007

 

Paper on the International Criminal Court and complementarity, International Studies Association, Chicago, March 2007

 

Presentation on Complexity in Sudan, Centre of International Studies, Cambridge, October 2006

 

Paper on Mixed Tribunals in Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and East Timor, International Studies Association, San Diego, 2006

 

 

Dr Roger O'Keefe