The rights of Victims under International Criminal Justice

• Author: Erinda Duraj (Male)
• Position: BOZO & Associates
• Pages: 102-114

ISSN 2410-3918 Academic Journal of Business, Administration, Law and Social Sciences Vol 1 No 2

Acces online at www.iipccl.org IIPCCL Publishing, Tirana-Albania July 2015

102

e rights of Victims under International Criminal Justice

Erinda DURAJ (MALE)

BOZO & Associates

Abstract

e goal of this paper is to examine the role of victims before the ICC criminal justice system by

giving a general overview of their role and participation.

It also focuses on examining some specic rights of victims before international criminal court

such as right to participation, the right to protection and the right to reparations which represent

one of the greatest advances made by the international criminal justice system and a signicant

challenge that the Court has already faced in its early hearings.

e right of victims to participate in the proceedings of the Court, as being the primary right

granted by the Statute, shall be a crucial topic in this paper. Explanation will be given during this

study regarding the various elements that need to be considered to understand the scope of this

right, as well as when this right will be excercised.

erefore, through this paper a specic attention shall have the right of victims to legal representation

before the Court and how to guarantee the indipendency by he Court of the representatives.

Finally, some conclusions and recommendation will be given at the end of this paper concerning

how to improve vicitims access and participation in the International Criminal Court proceedings.

Keywords: ICC, Victims, penal law, rights.

Introduction

e International Criminal Court (the “ICC”) results from the adoption of the Rome

Statute by the diplomatic conference organized by the United Nations on 17 July 1998

which entered into force the 1st July 2002 aer the 60th ratication, whose mission would

be to punish the most heinous of all crimes: crime of genocide, crimes against humanity,

war crimes and the crime of aggression. e ICC is the only existing international court

today whose jurisdiction is targeted towards individuals who have committed the most

serious crimes, aecting the whole international community.

One of the unique aspects of the International Criminal Court (ICC) compared to other

international criminal tribunals is the element of victim participation. (Cambridge

University Press, 2010, New York). From now on, victims will play a key role in the

international justice system. e legal instruments of the Court, however, are not explicit

in detailing the modalities of victims’ participation in the said proceedings.

e rst proceedings before the Court have shown how complex this legal framework

is and that eective participation of victims in proceedings depends mainly upon the

interpretation of the provisions of the legal texts by the Chambers.

According to Article 68(3) of the Rome Statute species that “Where the personal interests

of victims are aected, the Court shall permit their views and concerns to be presented and

considered at stages of the proceedings determined to be appropriate by the Court and in a