Farewell message of ICC President Chile Eboe-Osuji

As the President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji is ending his term this month, he is reflecting on his mandate, the Court's challenges and successes and way forward. Below is a video message of the President and its full transcript.

Hello. My name is Chile Eboe-Osuji. I am the President of the International Criminal Court since 2018 and a judge at the ICC since 2012. I am recording this message on Monday, 15 February 2021, as my time at the Court—both as President and Judge—approaches its end on 10 March 2021.

As I leave the Court, I should like to share these parting thoughts.

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I truly feel very positive about the future of our Court.

Not because the Court's mandate is easy. But that mandate – being a mandate of humanity – should be wholly unnecessary in a world where the keenest impulses of our civilisation are allowed ALWAYS to direct how we human beings treat one another. Sadly, however, lessons of history would teach that as merely wishful thinking. So it is that the world continues to need a permanent international institution whose mandate is to hold accountable those who commit genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression – so that victims may have a place for justice, when justice is not readily available at home.

That permanent international institution is the ICC.

Despite countless challenges during its first two decades, the Court has remained undeterred in its determination to discharge that mandate. That determination lives in the resolve of the Court's Judges, the Prosecutor, the Registrar, other officials and staff, to discharge their functions. I am truly grateful for their service to humanity, as I have witnessed them perform it during my tenure as President. But, that determination is also much inspired by the robust moral support that the Court has received from many States and their representatives, as well as from civil society and academia – even those who come from States that are not yet parties to the Court's treaty. I thank all of you.

This joint effort has served to ensure that the ICC is a principal pillar of the international rule of law – a key tool in the pursuit of international peace and the protection of humankind from unspeakable acts of inhumanity.

None of this is to say that the Court's success is automatically assured in the discharge of its mandate. Indeed, the ICC's mandate is such that, in the nature of things, the Court is always going to attract resistance – even resolute pushback – from those who find the Court's work inconvenient to their own objectives. And such resistance or pushback has been key amongst the 'countless challenges' that the Court has faced in its work during the past two decades.

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The beginning of 2021 has now ushered in a sense of a new dawn on the international stage. A sense of hope of rebuilding the structures and the spirit of multilateralism – and confidence in the idea – all of which were central to the creation of the ICC in the 1990s.

It is critical that the spirit of this new dawn is harnessed to the maximum extent, to rally broader – and stronger – support for the Rome Statute and the ICC. That task belongs to the Court's States Parties, in the first place. While many of them have done an admirable job of mobilising support for the Court during the darkest periods of the past four years, there is much more that can be done to protect the Court from the repeat of such experience in future.

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Equally important is the need to invest continuous efforts in enhancing the Court from the inside. Like every human institution, the Court is not perfect. It will continue to need constant improvement.

To be sure, that need is indeed the original weakness – the Achilles Heel if you like – of every judicial system in the world. But, it isn't only judicial systems that have that need. Every human system has it. Professor Stephen Hawking identifies the same problem even in our broader universe. As he once put it: 'One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn't exist.'

That is why the Court's leadership during my term voluntarily invited a comprehensive systems review – the first one in the Court's history. Our very aim in inviting the exercise was to strengthen the ICC as an institution, by identifying, in a comprehensive way, areas in need of improvement – in the short term, in the medium term and in the long term.

But, there is a small word of caution. It is to say that great care must be taken to ensure that the Court's independence is not jeopardised, as a matter of implementing any of the recommendations of the review consultants. Independence is the cornerstone of every judicial institution's legitimacy. Nothing that risks its compromise could ever be good enough for this international Court of law.

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I leave during a period of profound transition. The ASP has elected six new outstanding jurists to replace the six judge whose terms come to an end on 10 March. And just last week, the ASP also elected a new Prosecutor Mr Karim Khan QC to replace Ms Fatou Bensouda who departs in June. I take this opportunity to pay the deepest respects to Ms Bensouda. She is a person of unquestionable integrity, who has been the best possible exemplar of what it means to have an independent Prosecutor, serving an independent Court. Let me also pay tribute to the incoming Prosecutor. I have known Karim for almost 25 years now, since when we were both much younger prosecutors at the ad hoc Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. He is a first class legal professional with a true sense of purpose for what this Court stands for. I have no doubt that he has the will to use this Court to pursue its mandate of humanity.

On 11 March 2021, the judges will elect a new President to succeed me. I trust that all the judges, the officials and staff of the Court and representatives of States Parties will rally behind the new President. I have no doubt that the new President will give the job all that he or she has in the tank of effort, to serve the Court.

Before I conclude, I feel compelled, by the importance of the Court's mandate of humanity, to leave this soul searching question that must always guide our efforts in service of that mandate. That question is this: 'Have I done the very best that is possible within me to do, in service of the Court's mandate—and not merely what I consider to be good enough or even more than good enough?' My answer to that question is unequivocally, 'Yes.' I hope that will be yours, too – at all times. The victims of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression deserve nothing less. Thank you.

For further information, please contact Fadi El Abdallah, Spokesperson and Head of Public Affairs Unit, International Criminal Court, by telephone at: +31 (0)70 515-9152 or +31 (0)6 46448938 or by e-mail at: [email protected]

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