Lydiah Kemunto Bosire shares with Pambazuka News commentary on Kofi Annan’s handing in of the ‘Waki envelope’ to the International Criminal Court two weeks ago, made by contributors to the African Arguments forum. Bosire discusses the possible implications of the story for Kenya, with reference to the opinions of Daniel Branch, Daniel Waweru, Gabriel Lynch, Tim Murithi, Wanjiru Kamau-Ruternberg and Sisule Musungu. Pambazuka readers are warmly invited to participate in the debate.

In considering the wars in the Central African Republic (CAR), Darfur, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where the use of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is widespread, this paper seeks to accomplish two tasks. The first task is descriptive: to give an overview of the manner in which the International Criminal Court (ICC) has responded to SGBV in the three countries. The second task is a modest attempt to analyze why SGBV continues to be inadequately addressed. Here, the paper considers the practical challenges that are inherent in transitional justice as a tool, particularly in its preference of some harms and narratives over others.

The paper also considers the conceptual challenges that come with understanding SGBV itself, in particular the implications of a focus on sexual violence over other forms of violence, and that of a focus on women over other feminized identities. The paper concludes with the suggestion of some useful debates for the consideration of scholars and practitioners, including the possibilities of a consideration of rape as torture, and the ramifications of focusing on criminal outcomes of political crises, to the neglect of necessary political solutions. In sum, the paper offers that transitional justice can only make a modest contribution to addressing SGBV, and that complex political crises underlying and causing violence must not be left on the wayside as we advocate around the criminal symptoms.

TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE RESPONSES TO SEXUAL AND GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (CAR)

Between October 2002 and March 2003, CAR President Ange-Félix Patassé invited the forces of Jean-Pierre Bemba, the Commander in Chief of Mouvement de Libération du Congo (MLC) to fight a rebel movement led by François Bozizé, the former Chief of Staff of the CAR army. In February 2003, FIDH referred the case to the ICC, following an extensive field mission to the conflict-affected areas where they found widespread rape, particularly from the forces of Bemba [1].

A key feature of in the CAR conflict was the high reported number of victims of rape. Under the presidency of Bozizé, who won the war, the highest court in the CAR determined that they would not be able to address the rape cases. In December 2004, the CAR government made a state referral to the ICC. According to the OTP, CAR became “the first time the Prosecutor ... open[ed] an investigation in which allegations of sexual crimes far outnumber alleged killings [2].