Today, 14 March 2012, Angelina Jolie attended the
reading of the first verdict rendered by the International Criminal
Court (ICC), witnessing this decision and supporting the considerable
advancements in international justice that the ICC represents.
“The
delivery of the ICC’s first verdict today is an important moment for the
Court, for the Democratic Republic of Congo, and for the rule of law.
Perhaps today’s verdict of guilty provides some measure of comfort for
the victims of Mr Lubanga’s actions. Most of all it sends a strong
message against the use of child soldiers”, said Jolie.
The verdict marks a historic milestone for the ICC.
The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo
was the first trial to be brought before the ICC, and Mr Lubanga was
the first suspect to be arrested under an ICC warrant. Thomas Lubanga
Dyilo has been convicted of enlisting, conscripting and using persons
under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities.
The United Nations estimates that there are tens of
thousands of child soldiers engaged in combat in Africa, Asia and Latin
America.
Her presence at the hearing today is Ms Jolie’s
fourth visit to the ICC and third appearance at the Lubanga trial
proceedings. In addition to attending the testimony of a victim, a child
soldier, and attending closing arguments in the case, Ms Jolie funded
the Lubanga Chronicles. The Lubanga Chronicles brought news of the trial
to the general public in the international community and local
communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, through the
distribution of written chronicles, short audio clips via local radio
stations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and short video clips
via internet and other outlets.
OTPNewsDesk@icc-cpi.int
Source: Office of the Prosecutor
Clare Garnett
@claregarnett
CNN Intl Newsource
@CNN_INS
Rachel Irwin
@Rachel_IWPR
Somber Angelina Jolie Attends Sentencing of Congolese Warlord at The Hague
Credit: George Pimentel/WireImage.com
Angelina Jolie isn't one to miss a history-making moment.
The actress, director and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, 36, arrived in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands on Tuesday with daughters Zahara, 7, and
Shiloh, 5, for a lowkey visit that had nothing to do with a splashy film
premiere.
PHOTOS: Is Angelina the biggest Hollywood humanitarian ever?
Instead, Jolie sat in the public gallery Wednesday morning for the
first-ever verdict at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, 10
years after it opened.
After 200 days in court, vicious Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga was
finally convicted of kidnapping and recruiting young children --
forcing them to become child soldiers to fight for Congolese rebel
sources.
PHOTOS: Shiloh's stylish life
"This is their day," Jolie said in a statement. "Where these children
will feel there is no impunity for what happened to them, for what they
suffered."
"Angelina was very low key," an onlooker at the Hague tells
Us Weekly. "She came in almost unnoticed to watch the verdict and left right afterwards."
PHOTOS: Angelina stuns on a somber humanitarian trip
The case of 51-year-old Lubanga could set a precedent for Uganda
guerilla warlord Joseph Kony, currently the subject of a huge,
celeb-supported viral campaign aimed at bringing him to justice.
Over the weekend, Jolie was by love
Brad Pitt's side in New Orleans for his Make It Right Foundation's huge, star-studded bash.
Angelina Jolie hails ICC verdict in child soldiers case
Angelina Jolie (AFP/File, Johannes Eisele)
(AFP)
THE HAGUE — Hollywood star and activist Angelina Jolie greeted the
conviction of a Congolese warlord Wednesday, praising the Hague court
for its "strong message against the use of child soldiers".
The
International Criminal Court in its first verdict found Thomas Lubanga,
51, guilty of abducting and conscripting children as young as 11 to
fight and kill in a conflict in a gold-rich region of the Democratic
Republic of Congo.
After watching from the front row of the public
gallery, Jolie in a statement said that "the delivery of the ICC's
first verdict is an important moment for the court, for the DRC and for
the rule of law".
"Most of all, it sends a strong message against
the use of child soldiers," she said, adding that she hoped the
conviction would also "provide some measure of comfort for the victims".
Known
for her humanitarian work around the world, and her campaigning against
the use of child soldiers, Jolie is funding the "Lubanga Chronicles", a
public information campaign in the DRC on the trial.
The Lubanga
chronicles have spread news of the landmark proceedings through the
distribution of written reports, short audio clips played on local radio
stations, and short videos on the Internet.
Jolie, who wore a
grey two-piece business suit in court, listened intently from behind the
glass partition as Judge Adrian Fulford read the verdict, 10 years
after the tribunal was launched.
The actress and director left the
courtroom via a service elevator after the hearing. It was her fourth
visit to the court's fortress-like headquarters in a southern suburb of
The Hague.
Previously, she attended the testimony of a child soldier and a victim as well as the closing arguments last August.
Copyright © 2012 AFP.
Congo warlord convicted of using child soliders
By MIKE CORDER, Associated Press
–
11 minutes ago
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Judges at a war crimes tribunal
convicted a Congolese warlord Wednesday of snatching children from the
street and turning them into killers, in the International Criminal
Court's landmark first judgment 10 years after it was established.
"The
prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that Mr. Thomas Lubanga
is guilty of the crimes of conscripting and enlisting children under the
age of 15 years and using them to participate actively in hostilities,"
said Presiding Judge Adrian Fulford.
Lubanga, wearing an
ivory-colored robe and skull cap, sat with his hands clasped in front of
him listening to the verdict and showed no emotion as Fulford declared
him guilty.
Actress and activist Angelina Jolie watched the
hearing from the public gallery and said the verdict was a victory for
the former child soldiers.
"This is their day — where these
children will feel there is no impunity for what happened to them, for
what they suffered," Jolie said.
As he left court flanked by
guards, Lubanga nodded and smiled to supporters in the public gallery. A
sentencing hearing will now be scheduled. Lubanga faces a maximum
sentence of life imprisonment.
Judges said Lubanga, "personally used children below the age of 15 as his bodyguards."
While
the three-judge panel unanimously convicted Lubanga, it also harshly
criticized prosecutors as "negligent" for using intermediaries to deal
with witnesses in Congo.
Fulford said three intermediaries
"persuaded, encouraged or assisted witnesses to give false evidence" and
scrapped the evidence of three witnesses.
"The Prosecutor's
office must review its limited investigation strategy adopted in the
Lubanga case, especially in light of such decisions precluding victims
from participating in trials and obtaining reparation," said Michael
Bochenek of Amnesty International. "Lessons need to be learned for
future cases."
Amnesty also criticized the court for not charging
Lubanga with sexual violence crimes, saying the decision potentially
denied "justice and reparation to many more victims."
However,
other witnesses and video of Lubanga speaking to recruits, some of them
children, at a training camp provided enough evidence to convict him.
Prosecutors
said Lubanga led the Union of Congolese Patriots political group and
commanded its armed wing, the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of
Congo, which recruited children — sometimes by force, other times
voluntarily — into its ranks to fight in a brutal ethnic conflict in the
Ituri region of eastern Congo.
The trial, which began in January
2009, is the first at an international court to focus exclusively on the
use of child soldiers and activists say it should send a clear message
to armies and rebels around the world that conscripting children
breaches international law.
The United Nations estimates tens of
thousands of child soldiers are still fighting in conflicts from Africa
to Asia and Latin America.
"The guilty verdict against Lubanga is a
strong warning to military commanders in Congo and elsewhere: using
children as a weapon of war is a serious crime that can lead them to the
dock," said Geraldine Mattioli-Zeltner of Human Rights Watch.
The
first verdict is a coming of age for the court set up to prosecute war
crimes suspects in countries unable or unwilling to try them. So far,
prosecutors have opened seven investigations and have just five suspects
in custody, including former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and
former Congo Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba.
However, questions
still remain about the its effectiveness. The court has no police force
to arrest suspects and can only launch investigations in the 120
countries that recognize its jurisdiction, or if the Security Council
orders a probe.
That means that the court is powerless to
intervene in the bloody conflict tearing Syria apart because Damascus
has not recognized the court and the Security Council is bitterly
divided.
The inability of the court to have suspects arrested
turned into a global online sensation last week with the release of the
Kony 2012 video by American activists, which highlighted the case of
notorious Ugandan rebel Joseph Kony, the first person indicted by the
court who remains a fugitive more than six years later.
Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Kris Connor/Getty Images
He's played Batman, she's played Lara Croft.
But
George Clooney and
Angelina Jolie don't
have to stretch too much to channel their inner superhero: Both are
real-life do-gooders who passionately advocate for causes they believe
in.
Case in point: Today, the A-listers threw their massive star power
behind two crusades against violence and human-rights abuses in Africa.
MORE: Kony 2012—George Clooney, Angelina Jolie and You Asked to Save Africa's Invisible Children From Torture
Clooney testified today before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee about atrocities and civil unrest in South Sudan, the young
nation that seceded from Sudan last year.
As a preamble to his Senate visit, Clooney
appeared on CBS This Morning to speak about his trip last week to South Sudan, where he witnessed firsthand the nation's alarming strife and oppression.
"There is an urgency," Clooney tells hosts
Charlie Rose and
Gayle King,
referring to a blood-soaked mountainous region that separates the two
warring nations. "There seems to be the exact same signs that we saw in
the beginning of Darfur, which is a government bombing innocent
civilians. We were there and saw it firsthand, so we're going to talk
about the urgency of some form of involvement. That doesn't mean
military, and it certainly doesn't mean money necessarily. What it means
is good, strong, robust diplomacy, hopefully with China."
PHOTOS: Hollywood Gets Political
Clooney appeared on the show with human-rights activist John
Prendergast, who accompanied him on the trip, and both spoke about their
observations about the massive dangers facing South Sudanese civilians
caught in the crossfire, including airplane bombings, rocket attacks,
rape and kidnapping.
"We also have a window of opportunity to avoid [a civil war], so our
job is try to point everything in that direction," Clooney said.
"We want to try to choke off this government of Sudan."
MORE: Brad Pitt, George Clooney Star in Gay Marriage Play
Meanwhile, Jolie was at the International Criminal Court in The
Hague today, where she watched the conviction of Congolese warlord
Thomas Lubanga.
Lubanga was found guilty of abducting children and forcing them to
become child soldiers who fought and died in a bloody civil war, for a
period that stretched from 1998 to 2003.
Jolie, a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees, watched from the front row of the public gallery as the
verdict was read.
MORE: Angelina Jolie Thanked by Genocide Survivor for "Taking Justice Into Her Home and Hands"
Afterward, she release a statement saying that "the delivery of
the ICC's first verdict is an important moment for the court, for the
[Democratic Republic of Congo] and for the rule of law."
She also added that the verdict "sends a strong message against the
use of child soldiers" and that she hoped it would "provide some measure
of comfort for the victims."
Given Jolie and Clooney's fervent commitment and social conscience,
who needs fictional Hollywood superheroes when it's already got the real
thing?
Read more:
http://www.eonline.com/news/celeb_crusader_alert_george_clooney/301087#ixzz1p7fg1Pbg
