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Studia Iuridica

Can Duress Exclude Criminal Responsibility of Former Child Soldiers? The Case of Dominic Ongwen Before the International Criminal Court

2019, 82, No. 1

Patryk Gacka

University of Warsaw

DOI

10.5604/01.3001.0013.9612

Publication date

02.03.2020

Publishing model

open access

License type

CC BY 4.0 Int.

Field

Law

Discipline

law

Language of publication

English

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PDF 500 KB

Article

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Number of downloads:98

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Abstract

The phenomenon of child soldiers encompasses up to half a million of adolescents around the world and is – without a doubt – one of the most pressing humanitarian problems of contemporary armed conflicts. This article aims at addressing this issue by examining an ongoing trial of Dominic Ongwen before the International Criminal Court. The first part is dedicated to the description of Dominic Ongwen’s life through the prism of the ‘victim’ and ‘perpetrator’ labels. In this respect I try to prove that in many situations these two labels do not fit the social reality which they are supposed to classify or categorize. In the second part, I refer to the taxonomy of defences, justifications, excuses and grounds for excluding criminal responsibility in domestic and international criminal law. I also analyse concepts of duress and necessity as they are codified in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. On these basis, I give a negative answer to the question if Dominic Ongwen will be able to effectively invoke one of these defences in order to limit or exclude his criminal responsibility, while in conclusions I also provide a short assessment of ‘the law as it is’.

Keywords:

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