Lunch seminar with Tonny Kirabira

Feminist Judgments and the ICC Judgment: Re-writing the Ongwen sentencing judgement

Feminist engagement with international courts has mostly rotated around issues like conceptualisation of sexual and gender-based crimes, and gender representation at the Courts. However, a more practical framework is relevant in order to consider the sensitivity of the salient aspects of such crimes. This presentation derives from a broader ICC Feminist Judgment Book project (Cambridge University Press), which utilises the concept of ‘feminist judgment-writing’ as a methodology for gender-sensitive judging at the ICC.  As such, the authors wear judicial rather than academic robes, to re-write judgments that are legally plausible and feminist.

The Ugandan case of Dominic Ongwen is used a prism to use this framework. The ICC determined the sentence for Ongwen for his crimes, which included ‘forced pregnancy’ as both a war crime and a crime against humanity. Why might a reader consider the re-written Ongwen judgment to be ‘feminist’? The re-written decision by Tonny R. Kirabira and Dr Rosemary Grey will re-examine the evidence before the Court, in order to make visible additional violations beyond those captured by the ‘forced pregnancy’ charge. In sum, the re-written judgement will align with a ‘feminist’ approach, by placing the lives of women and girls at the centre of the analysis, whilst discussing additional harms to the mother when evaluating the seriousness of forced pregnancy. Beyond extending feminist scholarship on international criminal law, the re-written judgement creates more pathways for gender sensitive judging in both domestic and international courts.

Speaker bio

Tonny is a PhD law researcher at the University of Portsmouth (United Kingdom), focusing on transitional justice and international criminal prosecution. He previously worked as a Visiting Professional in the Office of Public Counsel for Victims at the International Criminal Court. He holds an LLM in International Human Rights Law from University of Notre Dame (United States), and a bachelor of Laws degree from Uganda Christian University (Uganda). He was admitted to the Ugandan Bar in 2014 and practices as a Barrister and Solicitor in the High Court of Uganda and all courts of judicature. He is involved in international human rights work, including participation in UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva. He is also a Research Affiliate with the Refugee Law Initiative at University of London. He has also collaborated with Leiden Law School’s Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies as an expert on the Tracing Inherent Powers Project. He has taught undergraduate law courses at the University of Greenwich, University of Portsmouth and Royal Holloway, University of London.

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