Expert Roundtable: The Ongwen Case
Event Description
PILPG and the Utrecht University Centre for Global Challenges (UGlobe) hosted an expert roundtable on the Ongwen Case before the International Criminal Court on Wednesday, March 24 from 12:00 - 1:00 pm EDT/5:00 pm - 6:00 pm CET.
On February 4, 2021, the ICC’s Trial Chamber IX found alleged Lord’s Resistance Army Brigade Commander Dominic Ongwen guilty for a total of 61 comprising crimes against humanity and war crimes, committed in Northern Uganda between July 1, 2002 and December 31, 2005. Ongwen is the first LRA commander to face trial before the ICC. Ongwen, who is now in his 40s, was kidnapped when he was around 10 years old by the LRA.
Our panelists provided insight into the case, the issue of mitigation of punishment, and several other key themes reflected in the judgment and proceedings.
This event was part of the PILPG Thought Leadership Initiative. The Initiative focuses on prominent international law and international affairs topics and organizes monthly expert roundtables to share expertise and reflections from our work on peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and war crimes prosecution.
This event was co-sponsored by the Utrecht University Centre for Global Challenges (UGlobe). The Utrecht University Centre for Global Challenges promotes interdisciplinary collaboration and experimentation between Utrecht University researchers, its students, and societal stakeholders from across the globe. Its aim is to critically understand and confront in transformative ways those global challenges that intersect human rights, conflict & security, sustainability, and equity. Learn more about UGlobe here.
Moderators
Professor Milena Sterio
Milena Sterio, the Charles R. Emrick Jr. - Calfee Halter & Griswold Professor of Law at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and Co-Coordinator for Global Criminal Justice Partnerships at the PILPG is a leading expert on international law, international criminal law and human rights. Sterio is one of six permanent editors of the prestigious IntLawGrrls blog, and a frequent contributor to the blog focused on international law, policy and practice. In the spring of 2013, Sterio was selected as a Fulbright Scholar, spending the semester in Baku, Azerbaijan, at Baku State University. While in Baku, she had the opportunity to teach and conduct research on secession issues under international law related to the province of Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh. Serving as a maritime piracy law expert, she has participated in meetings of the United Nations Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia as well as in the work of the United Nations Global Counterterrorism Forum. Sterio has also assisted piracy prosecutions in Mauritius, Kenya and the Seychelles Islands. Sterio is a graduate of Cornell Law School and the University of Paris I, and was an associate in the New York City firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton before joining the ranks of academia full time. She has published seven books and numerous law review articles. Her latest book, “The Syrian Conflict’s Impact on International Law,” (co-authored with Paul Williams and Michael Scharf) was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020.
Dr. Julie Fraser
Julie Fraser is Assistant Professor with the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) and the Montaigne Centre at Utrecht University. She has published, taught, and presented at conferences worldwide on a variety of topics relating to international human rights law and transitional justice. Her most recent publication is an edited volume with Dr Brianne McGonigle Leyh entitled Intersections of Law and Culture at the International Criminal Court (Edward Elgar 2020). This work takes a multidisciplinary approach to the study of international law in practice, and builds upon her PhD research.
Julie defended her PhD in 2018, which was awarded the Max van der Stoel Prize in Human Rights and was published as a monograph entitled Social Institutions and International Human Rights Law Implementation: Every Organ of Society (Cambridge University Press 2020). As part of her doctoral research, Julie assisted the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women with their 65th session in Geneva in 2016, and undertook field research in Java, Indonesia in 2017.
Prior to academia, Julie practiced law as a qualified solicitor, including working with the International Criminal Court and as a lawyer with the Australian Government Solicitor.
Julie has been affiliated with PILPG since 2012 and presently is a Senior Peace Fellow.
Speakers
Sarah Kihika Kasande
Sarah Kihika Kasande is Head of Office for the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and an Advocate of Courts of Judicature in Uganda. She has extensive experience and training in gender and the law, international law, transitional justice, and constitutional law and over nine years of experience working in the field of human rights and transitional justice. Sarah has provided technical advice and capacity on a broad range of transitional themes to state and non-state actors, and undertaken research on international justice, gender justice, and transitional justice.
Before joining ICTJ, Sarah served as a senior program officer with the Uganda Association of Women Lawyers (FIDA Uganda), where she worked to advance access to justice for vulnerable women and children. In 2008, she was awarded the Open Society Justice Initiative Fellowship. Sarah holds an LL.M. in International Human Rights Law from the Central European University in Budapest, an LL.B. (Hons) from Makerere University, and a postgraduate diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre.
Dr. Kjell Anderson
Kjell Anderson is the director of the Master of Human Rights program, and an assistant professor of law, at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of Perpetrating Genocide: A Criminological Account (Routledge 2019),and the co-editor (with Erin Jessee) of Researching Perpetrators of Genocide (University of Wisconsin Press, 2020). His forthcoming book - The Dilemma of Dominic Ongwen (Rutgers University Press, 2021) is an examination of the life and ICC trial of Dominic Ongwen, based largely on interviews with individuals who know him or who worked on his trial. Anderson has published widely on mass atrocities and international crimes and has held academic positions at the National University of Rwanda, Leiden University, the University of Amsterdam, the University of the Fraser Valley, and the National University of Ireland, as well as at think-tanks, NGOs, and international organizations.
Grace Acan
Grace Acan is a Women's Activist, Writer and a co-founder of a local Women's Survivors Network in Northern Uganda. The Women’s Advocacy Network (WAN) seeks to empower its more than 500 members to realize economic security, health and well being and social justice. Grace's memoire, "Not Yet Sunset: A Story of Survival and Perseverance in LRA Captivity", was published in 2018. The book is a story of her childhood, abduction, and life inside the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Grace is a Survivor and also a member of SEMA, a Global Network of Victims and Survivors to End Wartime Sexual Violence. She is currently working with Refugee Law Project.
Adina Nistor
Adina-Loredana Nistor is a PhD Candidate in international criminal law at the University of Groningen. Her research explores how cultural differences impact international criminal trials throughout their proceedings, with a particular focus on the International Criminal Court (the ICC). Adina worked as a Visiting Professional at the ICC, Investigative Analysis Section (IAS) during April-September 2019. She holds a master’s degree in International Crimes and Criminology from VU Amsterdam and an MA in American Culture Studies from Warsaw University. She previously worked as Researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam and as Senior Research Associate with the Public International Law and Policy Group.
Dr. Dov Jacobs
Dr. Dov Jacobs is an International Criminal Law expert, Defense Counsel at the ICC and MICT and founder of SILC (Strategic International Legal Consulting). He is currently on the Defense teams of Laurent Gbagbo and Mahamat Said at the International Criminal Court. he has also been involved as an Amicus Curiae in both the Afghanistan and Palestine Situations at the ICC.
He is an Assistant Professor of Public International Law at Leiden University, regular guest professor in a number of universities (Sciences Po, Université de Lille, etc.) and he has published extensively in the field of international law and international criminal law. His current research interests cover international criminal law and procedure, public international law (particularly State Responsibility) and legal theory.
He is a door tenant at 9 Bedford Row, Senior Editor of the Leiden Journal of International Law and Chair of the ICCBA Counsel Support Staff Committee. He regularly comments on international (criminal) law issues on his blog, Spreading the Jam.