Nigeria: Legal submission to the ICC to end an unprecedented legal limbo and ensure that the rights of victims are respected
10-01-2025
On Monday 2 December, Amnesty International submitted a legal filing, to which UpRights provided legal and drafting support, to the President of the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on behalf of several victims’ networks in northern Nigeria, including the Jire Dole Mothers and the Knifar Movement networks.
The submission requests that the Pre-Trial Chamber take action to bring the Prosecutor into compliance with their legal obligation under Article 15(3) of the Rome Statute to open an investigation into the situation in Nigeria.
This filing responds to the unprecedented situation created by the Prosecutor in relation to the situation in Nigeria at the ICC. The Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) opened a preliminary examination into the situation in Nigeria in 2010. In 2020, the Prosecutor closed the preliminary examination, concluding that the statutory criteria for opening an investigation had been met. Despite this conclusion and now four years later, the OTP has nevertheless taken no action to request the opening of an investigation, leaving Nigeria in an unprecedented legal ‘limbo’ between these two stages of the ICC judicial process.
Ten years of preliminary examination followed by a public announcement in 2020 that the criteria for opening an investigation had been met has given rise to significant and legitimate expectations among victims and affected communities in Nigeria. Four years later, victims and survivors of the conflict have been left with no explanation or certainty as to the Prosecutor’s next steps, while their rights to truth, justice and reparations remain on indefinite hold.
In this filing, Amnesty International and UpRights submit that, in failing to request authorization to open an investigation in Nigeria, the Prosecutor is acting inconsistently with their legal obligation under Article 15(3) of the Rome Statute. The submission outlines how the language and structure of Article 15 make clear that, once the Prosecutor has concluded that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation, they are under a legal obligation to request authorisation from the Pre-Trial Chamber to do so. The submission argues that such authorisation should have been requested immediately after, or at a minimum, within a reasonable time after, the Prosecutor reached the conclusion that the criteria to open an investigation had been met. The submission further outlines how the legal obligation imposed on the Prosecutor under Article 15(3) is consistent with internationally recognized human rights, including the rights of victims to truth, justice and reparations, and to be informed about the status and progress of criminal proceedings.
UpRights is glad to support this critical submission and endorses its call for investigating and prosecuting the crimes committed in northeast Nigeria since 2009.
You can read the submission here.
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UpRights is based in The Hague, Netherlands
Info@uprights.org
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