31/ then why don’t we have an International Civil Court, one that hears claims (versus States) by the myriad victims of mass violence, rather than one that prosecutes a select group of people who, like Kony (and many others), might never appear in The Hague? Just a thought. /END

30/ If it works. But what we get is what we see, and what we see is what we get. And it reminds me of old conversations at international justice’s heyday in the mid-2000s: if it truly is all about victims—and perhaps it must be, as they are the primary seekers of justice and truth—

29/ If this was ending impunity, the core rationale of the ICC, is that what it looks like? These are observations that might seem harsh, and they in no way are meant to discredit the agency and the work lawyers and judges put into making international justice work as it works.

28/ If this hearing was ever to satisfy anyone’s trouble heart, mind, soul—who was it? If this was meant to discuss evidence, where was it? If this was to trigger reconciliation, where were the victims and where was the perpetrator? Where were the Desmond Tutus? Now we got judges mediating lawyers.

27/ But then, when we all gazed into the ICC’s fishbowl, there was nothing of substance that gripped these youngsters—some so young that they were not even born when Uganda’s war ended in 2005. At least 2 students fell asleep; another was drawing little stars on a piece of paper.

26/ Instead, a class of students from Scandinavia came by. All seemed young and bright; all seemed interested. There was much bustle and much enthusiasm. “No speaking, no sleeping,” the security guard told them.

25/ Yesterday it served not the most direct audience. On the public gallery, the atmosphere was of a different world than in the courtroom, and probably incomparable with Ugandans seeing the proceedings online. In the afternoon, there was not a single “African” in the gallery.

24/ Maybe it is time for international justice’s “homecoming”. In The Hague today, it all seemed overly performative, with prosecutors speaking legalese and the defence speaking politics. I was about winning the case. Parties were even snappy with each other. Who does that serve?

23/ (Kony was the perfect villain to pursue, his victims (innocent children) the perfect people to redress) themselves, in Uganda, by Ugandans, with Ugandan witnesses, and before a Ugandan audience. More truth might emerge there, and such truths might resonate better there.

22/ Even if alive, and even if arrested, they say, it is unclear that a state would send him to the Netherlands for trial. Uganda asked for the ICC’s help more than two decades ago—in a London Hotel. Today they might want to try the man that once put Uganda on the transitional justice map

21/ Who is Kony? And who was he? His motives? All 9 prosecutors, 9 victim representatives, and 9 defence lawyers in court are his biographers, his criminal profilers, but none of these 27 people have ever seen or spoken to Kony. The likelihood they ever will is slim. That is what the defence says.