The African Centre of International Criminal Justice has organized a two day legal capacity building training programme to provide international criminal law education to African journalists, law students, lawyers, the civil society and the general public.
The ACICJ training programme, 2017, hosted by the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration Law School, Green Hill, was targeted at Ghanaian and African journalists and to provide them with an in-depth overview of International Criminal Law and Justice.
The training which brought together journalists from across the country drawn from radio, television, print as well as those on social media including bloggers and online reporters.
The two day course also aimed at introducing to the participants the overall objective of the ICJL regime from a historical perspective, through to present times.
Dahirou Santa-Anna, a prosecutor at the ICC, took participants through the discussion.
On legal basis, jurisdiction for the establishment of the International Criminal Court, Edmund Foley and Jean-Jacques Badibanga of the GIMPA Law School and the ICC respectively educated those present on the operations of the court.
Amongst the topics treated during the period included jurisdiction and processes of the International Criminal Court, the role and rights of participants in proceedings before the ICC, the International Criminal Court and Africa: situations and cases as well as media ethics and effective legal communication for journalists.
On jurisdiction of the ICC, participants were made to know that the court has power to exercise its authority on genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes which is in line with the Rome Statute.
The experts took turn and outlined some of the cases the ICC under the office of the prosecutor is investigating from countries such as Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Darfur in Sudan, Kenya, Libya, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali and Georgia.
One area which was critical to the participants as it touched on their core mandates as far as reportage on the activities of the ICC is concerned was the media ethics and effective legal communications.
Here, participants were taught how to appreciate certain terminologies so as to appreciate the workings of the court in their reportage.
During the question and answer time, more light was thrown on how the ICC is working to bring sanity onto the continent by prosecuting leaders who try to entrench themselves in power.
Journalists were schooled on the composition of the ICC.
With a working staff of 800 from 100 states, the ICC’s President is Judge Silvia Fernandez de Gurmendi, with Ms Fatou Bensouda as prosecutor and Mr Herman von Hebel as registrar.
It is headquartered at The Hague, Netherlands.
Since the inception of the ICC in July 1, 2002, there are six persons currently in their custody. They are Bosco Ntaganda of DRC; Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo of Central African Republic; Laurent Gbagbo, Charles Ble Goude, Dominic Ongwen of Uganda and Ahmad Al Fagi Al Mahdi.
All participants who took part in the capacity programme were awarded certificates of participation by the ACICJ.
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