Domstolen i Haag mangler penge – også til at granske krigen i Mali

Announcing her first formal investigation since taking office, prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on 16 January promised justice to victims of “brutality and destruction” in three northern regions of Mali.

But with a shrinking team of investigators and a budget that has barely increased despite a doubling of the workload, some analysts are doubtful she can deliver.

“There are serious questions to be asked of the new prosecutor as to whether it is a drastic overstretch to have eight African countries being dealt with simultaneously with essentially the same level of staff and the same level of finance as her office was operating on before,” said Phil Clark.

He is a lecturer in comparative and international politics at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.

“Is it really feasible for the office to be dealing with so many cases?” noted Clark.

The ICC intervenes in countries that cannot – or will not – prosecute perpetrators (retsforfølge regningsmænd) of mass atrocities (grusomheder). It is intended as a court of last resort in countries where prosecutions are unlikely to happen without its intervention.

Total court funding in 2013 is around 144 million US dollar, with possible access to a contingency fund of up to 9,3 million dollar, compared with 138 million in 2010.

The prosecutor’s (anklagerens) office, which carries out the investigations, was this year allocated 37 million dollar.

This represents an increase of just 1,3 million dollar since 2010 despite the addition of Mali, Kenya, Ivory Coast and Libya to the docket (retslisten)- and these countries were themselves in addition to the DR Congo, Sudan, Uganda and the Central African Republic (CAR).

“They are really at the edge of what they can do with their resources,” said Kevin Jon Heller, associate professor and reader at Melbourne Law School.

Investigating through intermediaries (tredje part)