2010 Gender Report Card on the International Criminal Court

This is the sixth Gender Report Card produced by the Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice. Its purpose is to assess the implementation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of the Rome Statute, Rules of Procedure and Evidence (RPE) and Elements of Crimes (EoC) and in particular the gender mandates they embody, in the more than eight years since the Rome Statute came into force.

The Rome Statute is far-reaching and forward-looking in many aspects including in its gender integration in the following key areas:

• Structures – requirement for fair representation of female and male judges and staff of the ICC, as well as fair regional representation; requirement for legal expertise in sexual and gender violence; requirement for expertise in trauma related to gender-based crimes; the unique establishment of the Trust Fund for Victims

• Substantive Jurisdiction – crimes of sexual violence, as well as definitions of crimes to include gender and sexual violence, as constituting genocide, crimes against humanity and/or war crimes; the principle of non-discrimination in the application and interpretation of law, including on the basis of gender
  

• Procedures – witness protection and support; rights of victims to participate; rights of victims to apply for reparations; special measures especially for victims/witnesses of crimes of sexual violence
  

While implementing the Rome Statute is a task we all share, it is the particular responsibility of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) and the ICC. This Gender Report Card is an assessment of the progress to date in implementing the Statute and its related instruments in concrete and pragmatic ways to establish a Court that truly embodies the Statute upon which it is founded and is a mechanism capable of providing gender-inclusive justice.

The Gender Report Card analyses, and provides recommendations on, the work of the ICC in the following sections:

• Structures and Institutional Development
• Substantive Jurisdiction and Procedures
• The Assembly of States Parties
• Substantive Work of the ICC
  

Within these sections, we review and assess the work of each organ of the Court from 12 September 2009 to 17 September 2010. We provide summaries of the most important judicial decisions, the investigations, charges and prosecutions brought by the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), and the work of the many sections of the Registry towards an accessible and administratively efficient Court.