Publisher's Synopsis
"Victims have a right to participate in trials at the International Criminal Court (ICC), giving them a voice in the courtroom. Victims participate through lawyers, who, according to court rules, victims have a say in choosing. But in recent cases, the ICC has increasingly taken over the decision of which lawyers will represent victims, with minimal input from the victims themselves. While the court has cited legitimate reasons for this ... it risks missing an opportunity to empower victims early in proceedings. In 2015, a controversial decision on victims' legal representation in one of the court's cases - that of former Lord's Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen - threw these competing goals into sharp relief. [This report] draws lessons from the Ongwen cae and broader court practice. It calls on ICC judges and its Registry to rethink their approach to victims' legal representation, and to develoop a shared policy to prioritize v
