Did the ICC fail child victims in the Lubanga reparations order?

In 2012, the International Criminal Court (ICC) convicted Thomas Lubanga Dyilo for enlisting, conscripting and using child soldiers during the Ituri conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Two and a half years later, the Appeals Chamber of the Court issued an amended reparations order against Lubanga. This paper seeks to examine whether the amended order for reparations and the draft implementation plan for reparations in the Lubanga case failed child soldier victims by only ordering collective reparations instead of individual reparations. This article argues that despite the near impossible task at hand, which involved the diluting of victims’ individual reparations requests, the ICC and TFV have come up with as good a reparations plan as possible, balancing individual victims’ needs and requests with larger, community considerations.

Publication year:2017

Accessibility:Open