The International Criminal Court- hands-on litigation experience

The International Criminal Court deserves special attention. It is such a unique judicial system, litigating at the Court requires rare expertise and its decisions have far-reaching effects. One of our first actions was to officially reach out to the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague on 15 October. We were the first to file a complaint on behalf of the victims of Oct. 7 atrocities directly to the Prosecutor of the ICC, on 31 October 2023. Ever since then, we have been directly engaged with ICC investigators, providing evidence, direct witness statements of survivors and key eyewitnesses. In May 2024, our efforts showed their first tangible results, the ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan announced his intention to request three arrest warrants against Mohamed Deif, Sinwar and Haniya and stated: “I wish to express my gratitude to the survivors, and the families of victims of the 7 October attacks, for their courage in coming forward to provide their accounts to my Office. We remain focused on further deepening our investigations of all crimes committed as part of these attacks and will continue to work with all partners to ensure that justice is delivered.”

This is the fruit of our work and that of other partners. Above all, it is a victory for the victims. An important milestone in the long journey ahead.

It is true, while the ICC Prosecutor made this much awaited statement, he also declared he was requesting arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. Those arrest warrants are currently pending the legal issue of whether the ICC has jurisdiction over Israeli citizens, seeing the Palestinian Authority, which recognized the ICC jurisdiction over its territory and the acts of its citizens, is precluded from jurisdiction in criminal matters over acts of Israeli citizens according to the Oslo Accords, which are also the Accords by which the Palestinian Authority was established.

We were invited by the Court to express our views as Victim Representatives in the Situation. It must be stated, arrest warrants relating to the crimes committed on October 7 by Palestinian militias, in an attack led by Hamas, are independent and separate in law and in fact from any judicial review the ICC could potentially exercise over IDF conduct of hostilities in Gaza in retaliation to the October 7 attacks.

Our community interest company (CIC) offers a unique legal framework with three main focal points:

1. Victims’ Rights to Truth, Recognition, Justice, Reparations and Non-Repetition: These are the core principles of victims’ rights recognized and implemented in international law, by international or national jurisdictions; Our aim is to disrupt the terror infrastructure and prevent future atrocities.

2. Collecting and Preserving Evidence: We collect and preserve evidence directly by mapping the crime bases and with the victims we represent; we are also in direct contact with Israeli authorities and build partnerships with worthy civil initiatives bringing their expertise in mental resilience and trauma, documenting, and criminal investigations  to ensure justice is served.

3. Accountability: We lead a unique legal front to hold perpetrators accountable through international and local criminal and civil legal proceedings, based on citizenship and the principle of universal jurisdiction.

We are currently providing pro bono legal representation to over 300 victims of the October 7 events. The demand is high and we aim to represent 2,500 victims in the next 6 months. With your continued support, we are in a unique position to build our organisational capacity to be able to represent 50,0000 direct victims of October 7.