Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC)

The Rome Statute came into force on July 1, 2002 and Uganda is a signatory.

The States Parties to this Statute are “Determined to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes and thus to contribute to the prevention of these crimes”.

It is the duty of every State to exercise its criminal jurisdiction over those responsible for international crimes.

Article 5: Crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court

(a) The crime of genocide;

(b) Crimes against humanity;

(c) War crimes;

(d) The crime of aggression

Genocide (Article 6) any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Crimes against humanity (Article 7) means any of the following acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of attack:

(a) Murder;

(b) Extermination;

(c) Enslavement

(d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population

(e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;

(f) Torture;

(g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;

(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectively on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the court;

(i) Enforced disappearance of persons;

(j) The crime of apartheid;

(k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.

War crimes (Article 8) means: (a) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely, any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the following provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention

(a) Wilful killing;

(b) Torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;

(c) Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health;

(d) Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;

(e) Compelling a prisoner of war or protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power;

(f) Compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person of the right of fair and regular trial;

(g) Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement;

(h) Taking of hostages.

For (b), (c), (d), (e) and (f) sections read the Rome Statute.

Individual criminal responsibility (Article 25)

(1) A person who commits a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court shall be individually responsible and liable for punishment in accordance with the Statute.

(2) In accordance with this Statute, a person shall be criminally responsible and liable for punishment for a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court if that person:

(a) Commits such a crime, whether as an individual, jointly with another or through another person, regardless of whether that other person is criminally responsible;

(b) Orders, solicits or induces the commission of such a crime which in fact occurs or is attempted;

(c) For the purpose of facilitating the commission of such a crime, aids, abets or otherwise assists in its commission or its attempted commission, including providing the means for its commission;

(d) In any other way contributes to the commission or attempted commission of such a crime by a group of persons acting with a common purpose (see I and ii in the Statute)

(e) In respect of the crime of genocide, directly and publicly incites others to commit genocide;

(3) Attempts to commit such a crime by taking action that commences its execution by means of a substantial step, but the crime does not occur because of circumstances independent of the persons intentions (read the rest in the Statute).

Responsibility of commanders and other superiors (Article 28)

(a) A military commander or person effectively acting as a military commander shall be criminally responsible for the crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court committed by the forces under his or her effective command and control, or effective authority and control as the case may be, as a result of his or her failure to execute control properly over such forces, where:

(i) That military commander or person either knew or, owing to the circumstances at the time , should have known that forces were committing or about to commit such crimes, and

(j) That military commander or person failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures within his or her power to prevent or repress their commission or to submit the matter to the competent authorities for investigation and prosecution.

(b) With respect to superior and subordinate relationships not described in paragraph (a), a superior shall be criminally responsible for crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court committed by subordinates under his or her effective authority and control, as a result of his or her failure to exercise control properly over such subordinates. (For i, ii, and iii read the Statute).

The information has been compiled for Uganda’s security forces (and the public) so that they understand their individual responsibility and liability for crimes committed against the citizens of Uganda.

We have begun compiling information on crimes committed by security forces and supervisors’ failure to effectively control their subordinates. At an appropriate moment those who have committed crimes under the NRM government will be prosecuted in courts of law.

We appeal to the public to compile information including photographs and names of security forces that commit crimes against fellow Ugandans and send it to us. We would be happy to know who authorized the shooting of demonstrators in Kampala in September 2009.

There are many websites that will gladly receive the information.

[email protected]