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THE ISSUE OF REPARATIONS BEFORE THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
individual assessments.36 Following the example of the Governing Council of the
United Nations Compensations Commission (UNCC), where claims were categorized
into six different sections according to two sets of criteria which take account of ‘urgent’
and ‘non-urgent’ claims made by individuals, governments, corporations and other
organizations37 , where consistency was undeniably an advantage; in the instance of the
victims under the Lubanga case, the inflexibility of the civil compensation method
is definitely too rigid to be used with such a large group of human rights abuses.
Another example, which has been criticized for the same precision and consistency
for which the UNCC system was appreciated, can be the method of compensating
the victims of the September 11 tragedies developed by the government of the
United States. To unify the assessment process, victims were given a flat amount for
pain and suffering, which was added to the expected earning capacity of the decedent.38
Eventually, this system failed to award appropriate compensation, as it failed to take
into account many other factors, such as divorced parents or homosexual partners, and
was too simplified. The examples show that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, and
the Trust Fund will have to be extra-careful in its assessment and create a flexible and
consistent system for assessing loss and harm which will preferably take into account
not only tangible, but also intangible damage.
Another obstacle which the TFV will have to face is the disbursement of
the awards. For instance, the September 11th Fund and the Liberty Fund of the
International Red Cross were widely criticized for not getting the money directly
to the victims.39 The former devoted a large part of the whole sum to community
organizations to reimburse the money spent by municipalities for assistance in the
tragedy.40 The latter devoted portions of a $ 500 million fund to future disasters and
administrative costs – which resulted in an apparent loss of credibility, the resignation
of the President of the Red Cross, and, more importantly, the prolongation of the
victim’s hardship.41 The above-mentioned examples should work as a warning to the
TFV, and consequently to the ICC, to not repeat the same mistakes while assessing
and disbursing the awards to the victims under the Lubanga case.
The ICC has placed some special emphasis on other modalities of reparations,
namely establishing and assisting campaigns aimed at improvement of the victim’s
position, issuing certificates acknowledging the harm particular individuals suffered,
creating programs designed to inform the society about the outcome of the Trial, and
36 Dinah Shelton, Reparations for Victims of International Crimes, International Crimes, Peace, and Human
Rights: The Role of the International Criminal Court , D. Shelton ed. 2000, pp. 140-41.
37 Peter G. Fischer, The Victims’ Trust Fund of the International Criminal Court- Formation of
a Functional Reparations Scheme, Emory International Law Review, p. 225.
38 ibid., p. 226.
39 ibid., p. 227.
40 <
government-aid?_s=PM:US> last accessed on 20 December 2012, 1725.
41 < > last accessed on 20 December
2012, 1725 .