International justice: with Karim Khan, the ICC must make people forget its failures in Africa

British lawyer Karim Khan will be the third prosecutor in the history of the International Criminal Court.

AFP - SABAH ARAR

Text by: Claire Fages Follow

5 mins

The third prosecutor of the International Criminal Court takes office this Wednesday, June 16 and for nine years.

This is the British Karim Khan, a recognized specialist in international justice.

He has many challenges to overcome, after the failures of his predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, especially in Africa.

Publicity

Read more

Karim Khan

will have to make forget the setbacks of Fatou Bensouda. Unable to arrest former Sudanese head of state Omar al-Bashir, the Gambian prosecutor ended her mandate with a bitter failure: the final laundering of

former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo

, last March, after ten years of proceedings . The entire organization of the prosecutor's office, 300 people, needs to be reviewed, according to an audit report released late last year. According to Adama Dieng, the former UN special adviser for the prevention of genocide, Karim Khan is in a position to carry out this reform.

 “It will be necessary to make so that the office of the prosecutor is much more effective there are many imperfections which were noted as well at the level of the investigations as at the level of prosecution, in spite of the commendable efforts of the prosecutor.

But it is a very heavy machine, the International Criminal Court.

In this regard, I simply want to hope that Karim Khan will make good use of this report, but above all that he will come himself with his personal experience.

 "

Former lawyer of Jean-Pierre Bemba

An experience that led Karim Khan to defend alleged perpetrators of crimes against humanity before this same International Criminal Court. Because the 51-year-old Briton worked in the prosecutor's office of the ex-tribunal for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, but he was also the lawyer for former Liberian president Charles Taylor before the special tribunal for Sierra Leone and before the ICC, two vice-presidents accused of crimes against humanity: the Kenyan William Ruto and the Congolese

Jean-Pierre Bemba

, both released free from the Court. Hence the controversy surrounding the election of Karim Khan. A controversy deemed sterile by Adama Dieng.

 “During the campaign some did not hesitate to bring out all kinds of allusions, even in the Taylor trial.

But the truth is, a lawyer is there to defend.

The very text of the ICC, the Treaty of Rome, clearly foresees cases where the prosecutor himself will refrain from interfering in any case and this was relayed during the interviews at the time of the election

.

"

More digital evidence

Now a prosecutor, Karim Khan will have to rethink the system for collecting evidence.

Faced with an insufficient budget and the lack of cooperation from certain states, it could take advantage of the innovative techniques it has tested to investigate Daesh in Iraq, according to Delphine Carlens, head of the international justice office at FIDH.

“ 

These are surveys that are very complicated but can be done in other ways.

Perhaps Karim Khan will be able to bring to the prosecutor's office his experience acquired at UNITAD, in Iraq, where he carried out investigations on the basis of testimonies, but also on the basis of elements collected digitally.

Preservation of such evidence could be developed at the ICC.

 "

Continue to open up the ICC to the rest of the world

Elected by 72 states out of the 123 member countries of the ICC, Karim Khan garnered all the votes of the 33 African countries signatory to the Treaty of Rome. Africa's reconciliation with the ICC which had already started under the mandate of Fatou Bensouda. The latter had been able to open investigations elsewhere than on the continent and launch numerous prosecutions on crimes based on gender. Delphine Carlens: " 

If perhaps the majority of the investigations in progress concern Africa, we still have several investigations which concern other countries: Georgia, Afghanistan, Palestine, Myanmar. And there are all the preliminary examinations that precede the inquiries that even focus on a majority of situations outside the African continent: Colombia, the Philippines, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ukraine. Fatou Bensouda demonstrated that there was independence in terms of prosecution and that she was interested in all situations of serious crimes where no justice is possible at the national level and these situations go well beyond the African continent. . "

The ICC is still very busy with African affairs, with the Central African Republic and the ongoing trial of two anti-Balaka (Yekatom and Ngaïssona) and an ex-Seleka, who has just been transferred to The Hague.

The court must confirm the charges against a Sudanese suspect, Abd El Rahmane.

In Côte d'Ivoire, Simone Gbagbo is still the target of an arrest warrant and investigations are still underway on the other parties to the conflict.

In Libya, several suspects in the investigation referred by the Security Council into the crimes of Gaddafi have died, the list is reduced.

In Mali,

the Al Hassan affair

should be concluded before the end of Karim Khan's mandate, scheduled for 2030.

Guest Africa: F. Bensouda: After the ICC, "I think about how to participate in the development of The Gambia"

Newsletter

Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

• International justice