LAW Recommendations for ICC Revised Victims Strategy 

LAW Recommendations for ICC Revised Victims Strategy 

February 2025 

Robust victim-centric policies are essential for the International Criminal Court’s success and integrity. It is crucial that a variety of stakeholders have a say in shaping these policies. To this end, Legal Action Worldwide (“LAW”) recently provided extensive input on the Court’s existing Victims Strategy, which dates to 2012. This document summarizes the recommendations LAW submitted via the Court’s feedback survey, which was open between 15 August and 30 September 2024.

LAW is an independent non-profit organisation that uses victim-centred, gender-sensitive approaches to achieve justice for vulnerable communities in conflict-affected and fragile regions. LAW believes that victim-centred approaches should seek to empower individuals by prioritising their needs, wishes and interests. LAW has achieved this in practice by ensuring victims have appropriate information about all stages of proceedings as well as access to appropriate, gender-competent, and trauma-informed legal, medical, and psychosocial services. 

LAW’s experience representing victims before the Court and its various organs has made clear that when victims feel supported and understood, they tend to be more open and provide the Court with more precise and thorough information, which in turn improves the quality of the proceedings. A victim-centred approach thus requires meaningful engagement by the Court to assess survivors’ views and ensure their interests are embedded within relevant practices across all key stages of proceedings. This is often especially important in situations where the victims are living in displacement and/or fragile contexts where the conflict and security landscape continually evolves. 

LAW’s proposals for the revised Victims Strategy fall in four main categories: improved victim representation, trauma-informed engagement, gender competency, and implementation. This document first discusses how lengthening representation timelines, rethinking interactions with legal representatives of victims (“LRVs”), and further developing safety and security protocols can bring victim representation more in line with the Court’s ideals. Second, it suggests concrete steps the Court can take when engaging with victims who may be traumatized. Third, this document advises how the Court can incorporate contemporary understandings of gender into the revised Victims Strategy. Finally, it discusses LAW’s response to the outreach and oversight suggestions mentioned in the feedback survey. 

Read the recommendations here.