Call for papers
We are pleased to invite abstract submissions for the online seminar ‘Lights and Shadows in the Ongwen Case at the International Criminal Court: Inter- and Multi-disciplinary approaches’ to be held on the 13th and 14th October 2022.
The Prosecutor v. Dominic Ongwen has been so far one of the most complex cases at the International Criminal Court (ICC). The novel and problematic issues underlying this case have attracted a large amount of attention from a wide array of actors, including policymakers, lawyers, activists, journalists, and academics. First, Ongwen was convicted (pending appeals) of 61 charges corresponding to crimes against humanity and war crimes, which is by far the largest number in the ICC’s history. Second, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison (pending appeals), which is the second largest prison sentence imposed by the ICC. Third, Ongwen holds a double status: a former child soldier abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) who rose in rank to be one of the top commanders of this armed group. Fourth, spirituality related to duress and mental health illness were invoked by the defence as grounds for exoneration of
criminal liability, which required the ICC to tackle these matters for the first time in its proceedings and jurisprudence. Fifth, there has been a strong presence of a series of cultural elements, such as the sui generis nature of the LRA led by the messianic and despotic Joseph Kony, which underlies diverse issues addressed by the ICC such as witness testimony and victim participation. Sixth, this case reveals in a particularly intense manner the tensions and dilemmas between a (‘western’-led) international criminal justice project and the potential or even advisability of local/regional transitional justice initiatives, which in turn powerfully illustrates the ongoing legitimacy crisis of the ICC. Finally, a great deal of media spotlight has been put on this case and, more broadly, on the atrocities committed by the LRA as exemplified by the documentary ‘Kony 2012’ and attention among diverse personalities (politicians, international media journalists, celebrities, etc.). Although there have been scholarship pieces dealing with some of these issues in the Ongwen case (or more generally the Situation in Uganda at the ICC), there is arguably yet not a collective academic effort to discuss these issues in this prominent case in a systemic, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary fashion. Against this background, the present call for papers aims at contributing to filling this gap. By having the Ongwen case as a case study or ‘centre of gravity’, the organizers invite academic research (and policy-making reflections) on the issues detailed below or others closely related. Authors (individually or jointly) can examine the issues from one or more of these disciplines: language and communication studies, law, anthropology, philosophy, political science, psychology, journalism, and religious studies.
It is aimed that each contribution identifies and discusses both the strengths and weaknesses of the ICC and other actors when dealing with relevant matters in the Ongwen case, namely, the ‘lights and shadows’ in this pivotal case.
The topics to be considered may include, but are not limited to, the following ones:
• Victim participation in the Ongwen case
• Cultural defences in the Ongwen case
• Proving harm in the Ongwen case involving persons who are both perpetrators and victims of crimes Right to a fair trial in the Ongwen case
• Sentencing criteria in the Ongwen case
• Reparations for victims of the crimes committed by Ongwen
• Advantages/disadvantages or strengths/weaknesses of the ICC vis-à-vis local transitional justice mechanisms to deal with cases such as the Ongwen case
• Third world approaches to international criminal law as for the Ongwen case
• The Ongwen case and the legitimacy crisis of the ICC
• The discursive production of legitimacy by the ICC in the Ongwen case
• Producing and assessing evidence on beliefs and spirituality in the Ongwen case
• Lessons learnt from the ICC in the Ongwen case compared to hybrid and national criminal courts when tackling culture and spirituality
• The Ongwen case and legal pluralism
• Ongwen and the LRA on the spotlight: International media, stardom, and celebrities.
The seminar is organized in the context of the interdisciplinary research project Negotiating international criminal law: A courtroom ethnography of trial performance at the International Criminal Court (Academy of Finland, 2019-2023; PI: associate professor Sigurd D’hondt) and hosted by the Department of Language and Communication Studies, of the University of Jyäskylä (Finland).
Instructions
For consideration, please submit: 1) an abstract (maximum 500 words); and 2) a short CV or resume with a selected list of publications (maximum 2 pages) in one PDF file.
Your application should be sent to [email protected] and [email protected]. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 2nd May 2022. Decisions about the applications will be released on 16th May 2022.
Authors selected to present their work at the online seminar are expected to send a conference paper by 7th October 2022.
The online seminar will be held on the 13th and 14th October, when we will be discussing the conference papers. The organising committee plans to publish selected seminar papers in a edited collection or in a special issue in an peer reviewed international journal. Important dates
Abstract submission deadline 2nd May 2022
Notification of acceptance/rejection 16th May 2022
Conference paper submission deadline 7th October 2022
Webinar 13th– 14th October 2022
Final paper submission deadline 16th December 2022
Publication 2023 (expected)
Contacts
For further information or any queries, please contact Juan-Pablo Pérez-León-Acevedo ([email protected]) or Fabio Ferraz de Almeida ([email protected]).
