The International Criminal Court, Article 79, and Transitional Justice: The Case for an Independent Trust Fund for Victims

Abstract

Contrary to the rulings of the International Criminal Court’s Pre-Trial Chamber, the Trust Fund for Victims provided for in the ICC’s statute should be freed to pursue independent projects without any obligation to maintain a reserve for topping up Court-ordered reparations payments. Indeed, it should use all of its resources in pursuit of reparative projects that benefit and acknowledge those victims that are unlikely to be reached by the ICC’s reparations process. Court-ordered reparations should be funded only by the wealth of the criminal in question and by other Court-generated resources, such as fines and forfeitures. This approach would better realize the imperatives of transitional justice, better conform to the requirements of modern fundraising, and better align the distribution of institutional responsibilities under the ICC regime with the distribution of institutional competences.