198
Access to Redress for Stateless Persons Under International Law
several other violations. Regarding other reparatory measures the IACtHR, in line with its general practice,
issued specific reparatory measures including compensation and guarantees of non-repetition.
4.3 The International Criminal Court
4.3.1 Background and process
A mechanism that, for the time being, has not heard cases on stateless persons but is nevertheless worth
considering is the ICC. As previously mentioned, stateless persons are vulnerable to violations of their rights,
with the recent Rohingya crisis serving as a shocking example of this.185 It is possible that in the future, the
ICC could prosecute some of the perpetrators of gross abuses against the Rohingya. In fact, the ICC’s prosecutor announced a preliminary examination into the gross violations which resulted in the violent and
forced displacement, perpetrated by Myanmar’s army, of Rohingyas from Myanmar into Bangladesh.186 A
submission on behalf of the victims has been submitted to the court’s Pre-Trial Chamber I.187 The situation in
the Occupied Palestinian territories188 is also under investigation for violations against Palestinians, who are
among the world’s largest stateless populations. Furthermore, the ICC plays a central role in international
justice: it has strong provisions allowing for greater participation of victims in proceedings and has granted
reparations to victims in its rulings.189 For these reasons, the ICC was also considered for this study.
The ICC was established following the creation of two ad hoc tribunals: the International Criminal Tribunal
for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) during the
1990s. The creation of these two special courts was preceded by decades of talks about creating an international tribunal to prosecute the worst internationally wrongful acts. It was only after the creation of these
tribunals that the necessity for an international criminal court of a more permanent character became clear.
Following a complex process, in 1998 the UN General Assembly adopted the Rome Statute (RS), which
entered into force in 2002 and, by 2003, the ICC became fully functional. The RS grants the court jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and crimes of aggression that have taken place
after it entered into force. What sets the ICC apart from its predecessors is the role it grants victims. During
the preparatory meetings before the adoption of the Rome Statute, some states noted that the victim was
‘notably absent from the penal system’.190 The expansion of the role of victims was eventually adopted into
the rules and practice of the court.191 Unlike previous international criminal tribunals, victim participation
before the ICC has a wider scope,192 providing a prominent role for victims in the proceedings,193 and allowing for measures to redress violations.194 In this sense, the ICC’s mandate leads an emerging trend under
international criminal justice.195
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
UN Human Rights Council, ‘Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar’ (2018) A/HRC/39/64,
available at <https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/FFM-Myanmar/A_HRC_39_64.pdf> accessed 13th May
2019; Amnesty International, Mapping Myanmar’s Atrocities Against the Rohingya (2019) available at <https://mapping-crimesagainst-rohingya.amnesty.org/> accessed 13th May 2019; Human Rights Watch, ‘Rohingya Crisis’ (2019) available at <https://www.
hrw.org/tag/rohingya-crisis> accessed 13th May 2019.
Press Office of the International Criminal Court, ‘Statement of ICC Prosecutor, Mrs. Fatou Bensouda, on opening a Preliminary
Examination concerning the alleged deportation of the Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh’ (2018) <https://www.icccpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=180918-otp-stat-Rohingya> accessed 15th March 2019.
Preliminary Examination into the situation in Bangladesh [2018] ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I ‘Submissions on Behalf of the Victims
Pursuant to Article 19(3) of the Statute’ ICC-RoC46(3)-01/18.
See <https://www.icc-cpi.int/palestine> accessed 16th March 2019.
The Lubanga ruling was followed by a decision on reparations shortly after.
Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court Working Group on the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, Proposal
by Colombia Comments on the report on the international seminar on victims’ access to the International Criminal Court (document
PCNICC/1999/WGRPE/INF/2) Protection of victims and witnesses Participation of victims Protection of the identity of victims and
witnesses Reparations (United Nations, 1999) PCNICC/1999/WGRPE/DP.37, at 1.
expanded rights of participation (before, during, and after proceedings), disclosure, and protection (for victims and witnesses);
symbolic recognition as victims; and increased access to reparations, in various forms. See C Hoyle and L Ullrich, ‘New Court, New
Justice? The Evolution of ‘Justice for Victims’ at Domestic Courts and at the International Criminal Court’ (2014) 12 Journal of
International Criminal Justice 681, at 683; ‘The Evolution of Victims’ Access to Justice’ in K Booth & J Sulzer, Victims’ Rights Before
the International Criminal Court: A Guide for Victims, their Legal Representatives and NGOs (International Federation for Human
Rights (FIDH), Paris 2007), at 38.
C Stahn, H Olasolo & K Gibson, ‘Participation of Victims in Pre-Trial Proceedings of the ICC’ (2006) 4(2) Journal of International
Criminal Justice 219, at 220.
‘The Evolution of Victims’ Access to Justice’ in K. Booth & J Sulzer, Victims’ Rights Before the International Criminal Court: A Guide
for Victims, their Legal Representatives and NGOs (International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Paris 2007), at 36.
D Shelton, Remedies in International Human Rights Law (2nd, Oxford University Press, 2005), at 231.
C Hoyle and L Ullrich, ‘New Court, New Justice? The Evolution of ‘Justice for Victims’ at Domestic Courts and at the International
Criminal Court’ (2014) 12 Journal of International Criminal Justice 681, at 684.