20TH SESSION OF THE ASSEMBLY OF STATES PARTIES
7 December 2021
Name of the Event: Benchmarking in International Criminal Justice: Feasibility or Fiction? (co-hosted by: Germany, International Nuremberg Principles Academy and The Hague Institute for the Innovation of Law)
Report by: Ana Luz Manzano Ortiz, Junior Research Associate, PILPG-NL
Highlights:
Multidisciplinary experts on international criminal law agreed that measuring the effectiveness of the ICC is possible and necessary.
The President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon called for the creation of a culture of accountability for international criminal courts.
A pioneer project by the CBF of the ICC has the promise of providing predictability measurements about the work of the court.
Speakers:
Dr. Sam Muller, CEO of The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL)
Klaus Rackwitz, Director of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy
Judge Ivana Hrdličková, President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon
Carolina María Fernández Opazo, Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on Budget and Finance of the International Criminal Court
Dr. Marieke Wierda, transitional justice expert
Dr. Juan Carlos Botero, Executive Director of the World Justice Project
Summary of the Event:
This event centered around the question of measuring the work of international and regional criminal courts. The speakers brought together their expertise to provide different perspectives on the challenges and opportunities of monitoring the effectiveness of the system of international criminal justice.
The panel began with the intervention by German Ambassador Dr. Cyrill Nunn, who delivered an opening speech on the importance of bringing justice to victims of crimes against humanity (CAH). He reminded the panel that the promise that no one should go unpunished is one of the most important responsibilities of the international community, and that where domestic courts have universal jurisdiction, they act on behalf of this international community.
Next, Dr. Sam Muller presented the work of The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) as a project that aims to measure the quality of justice people receive by international organizations. He shared that the project began as a way of measuring the success of the ICC, to defend the Court, and fight back against criticism. Dr. Muller emphasized that there is a global trend towards measuring instruments, and measuring justice is crucial.
For this purpose, HiiL works with experts on the rule of law and on the rights of victims, as well as experts from international criminal courts. These experts look at the question of international criminal justice from a broad perspective, focusing on several different measures and responses toCAH, and not solely focusing on international criminal courts as individual institutions.
After that, Dr. Marieke Wierda, a transitional justice expert, shared her experience working with several international criminal law institutions, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Dr. Wierda shared that there is a tremendous need to understand the effectiveness and the impact of measuring our work in general, and shared her perspective about some of the reasons why this has not been done extensively in the area of international criminal justice institutions.
On one hand, Dr. Wierda shared that the international criminal justice project as a whole has a very strong normative underpinning, which has limited the participation of other disciplines, such as sociology, politology, and anthropology, so there is a knowledge gap that needs to be filled.
On the other hand, Dr. Wierda opined that there is a struggle with defining the goals of international criminal justice, and the result of this is that there is no consensus on how to best approach these goals through an effective methodology.
Following, Dr. Juan Carlos Botero presented his views on the benchmarking in international criminal justice. According to him, it is a hard reality that atrocities are very likely to keep happening, so working towards the maximum effectiveness of the system is crucial. Dr. Botero shared three main points about this. First, without measurement, international justice becomes an impossible task in the long run. Second, the system implies multiple parties with multiple goals that need to be aligned. Third, there is a competition between different ways for addressing mass atrocities, so we need clear standards for each one of the actors involved in the proceedings.
The Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on Budget and Finance of the International Criminal Court (CBF), Carolina Maria Fernandez Opazo, proceeded to share her views on the need for strong institutions that effectively track the work of international courts. She argued that predictability of the ICC is crucial to protect its sustainability, a lesson learned from past experience.
The concern that measurement could interfere with judicial independence is relevant, Fernandez Opazo explained, but when it is done properly it cannot be misused. She shared that the CBF has pioneered a project of performance indicators that has been tested on the appeals chamber of the ICC and, although the experience is limited, the performance indicators are promising.
Fernandez Opazo shared that this pioneer project has three components: (1) a comparative activity indicators that would ideally generate a comparison with the other tribunals as in it how much work is being done and will also measure efficiency; (2) a resource use indicator, which would help tribunals to use resources properly and to know how much money is needed; and (3) timeline certainty indicators related to predictability. This way, only the management of the tribunal but also stakeholders, broader civil society, and victims would be informed of expectations concerning the timing of the tribunal.
Lastly, Judge Ivana Hrdličková from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon concluded that the ICC should be the central point of this exercise of benchmarking international criminal justice, as it is a huge investment for the international community and in many ways the pinnacle of the international criminal justice system.