Amnesty International today submitted a legal submission to the International Criminal Court (ICC) pre-trial judge on behalf of multiple victim networks, calling on the ICC prosecutor to end the indefinite and incomprehensible delay in the court opening investigations into war crimes and crimes in Nigeria. Crimes against humanity.
In December 2020, the ICC prosecutor concluded that all criteria had been met for an investigation into atrocities committed in the country’s northeast since 2010, including atrocities committed in the ongoing conflict between Boko Haram and the Nigerian military. Having reached this conclusion, the clear next step should be to submit a request to initiate an investigation to the examining magistrate and then, subject to the magistrate’s authorization, to commence the investigation. Four years on, the ICC Prosecutor’s Office has yet to issue its original request.
“Victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Nigeria have the same right to justice as victims of crimes under international law elsewhere. They have waited too long. ICC Nigeria should not be forgotten.
Victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Nigeria have the same right to justice as victims of crimes under international law elsewhere. They have waited too long. The ICC should not forget Nigeria.
Isa Sanusi, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria
“Amnesty International has been calling for the ICC to investigate Nigeria for years. Despite the prosecutor’s office having clear legal obligations and a commitment to investigate, it continues to delay. We urge the ICC judges to exercise their supervisory powers and ensure that the prosecutor conduct consistent with the provisions of the Rome Statute.
“The Prosecutor has also failed to justify the prioritization of the situation in Nigeria, leaving victims and survivors of the conflict without explanation and without any certainty as they await the next steps the Prosecutor intends to take. When will their turn be available? What about Nigeria? Isa Sanusi asked.
The legal document holds that the Prosecutor’s Office failed to fulfill its legal obligations under Article 15, paragraph 3, of the Rome Statute and requested authorization to conduct investigations in Nigeria. The complaint also describes how prosecutors have created an unprecedented situation in which Nigeria is now conducting neither a preliminary examination nor an investigation, leaving it in a legal “precarious state” between these two stages of the ICC judicial process. In doing so, prosecutors bypassed due process and indefinitely suspended the victims’ rights to truth, justice, and reparation.
“As ICC member states begin their annual General Assembly sessions, we call on them to recognize that all ICC cases, including Nigeria’s, must receive the same standards of treatment and attention as other cases before the Court.”
background
Amnesty International filed the complaint on behalf of thousands of victims from multiple networks in northeastern Nigeria, including Mothers Gire Dole and the Naifal Movement Network. The Complaint was drafted with substantial support and legal advice from UpRights.
Since 2009, northeastern Nigeria has been the scene of heinous crimes committed by Boko Haram and the Nigerian military. Boko Haram has killed thousands of civilians, attacked schools and abducted women as well as boys and girls, many of whom were forcibly recruited as child soldiers or forced into marriage and sex slavery. The Nigerian military has killed or forcibly disappeared civilians, engaged in mass arbitrary arrests and detentions, and countless acts of sexual violence and torture, resulting in thousands of deaths in military custody. This armed conflict continues to this day, with both sides committing crimes against civilians year after year.
Ocampo, the first prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, launched a preliminary review of the situation in Nigeria in November 2010. They concluded that Boko Haram and the Nigerian military committed crimes against humanity and war crimes, and that the Nigerian authorities failed to truly investigate and prosecute these crimes. Since then, there has been no concrete progress.
