Fatou Bensouda

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Fatou Bensouda
Fatou Bensouda official portrait, 2008
Gambian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
Assumed office
3 August 2022
PresidentAdama Barrow
Preceded byFrancis Rene Blain
Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court
In office
15 June 2012 – 15 June 2021
PresidentSong Sang-Hyun
Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi
Chile Eboe-Osuji
Piotr Hofmański
Preceded byLuis Moreno Ocampo
Succeeded byKarim Khan
Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court
In office
8 September 2004 – 15 June 2012
PresidentPhilippe Kirsch
Sang-hyun Song
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byJames Stewart
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of The Gambia
In office
1998–2000
PresidentYahya Jammeh
Preceded byHawa Sisay-Sabally
Succeeded byPap Cheyassin Secka
Personal details
Born
Fatou Bom Nyang

(1961-01-31) 31 January 1961 (age 63)
Bathurst (now Banjul), British Gambia (now The Gambia)
SpousePhilip Bensouda
Children3
Alma materUniversity of Ife
Nigerian Law School
International Maritime Law Institute
OccupationInternational Criminal Law Prosecutor, diplomat
ProfessionLawyer

Fatou Bom Bensouda (/fɑːˈtuː bɛnˈsoʊdə/; née Nyang; born 31 January 1961) is a Gambian lawyer and former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), who has served as the Gambian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom since 3 August 2022.[1]

She served as Prosecutor from June 2012 to June 2021, after having served as a Deputy Prosecutor in charge of the Prosecutions Division of the ICC from 2004 to 2012. Before that she was Minister of Justice and Attorney General of The Gambia from 1998 to 2000.[2] She has also held positions as a legal adviser and a trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).[3]

On 2 September 2020, Bensouda was named a "specially designated national" by the United States government under the Trump administration, forbidding all U.S. persons and companies from doing business with her.[4] The Biden administration reversed course on 2 April 2021 when President Joe Biden revoked EO 13928, removing Bensouda from the SDN list;[5] US Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement calling the previous sanctions "inappropriate and ineffective",[6] but still restated that Washington will continue strongly opposing any ICC's actions relating to the Afghanistan and Palestinian situations.[7]

Early life and education[edit]

Born on 31 January 1961 in Banjul (then Bathurst), Gambia, into a polygamous Muslim family,[8] she is the daughter of Omar Gaye Nyang, who was a government driver and the country's most prominent wrestling promoter. Her father was a major landowner who also owned several wrestling arenas in the country. Fatou Bensouda is the niece of the Gambian historian and author Alieu Ebrima Cham Joof. Her father is related to the Joof family through his maternal grandmother Ndombuur Joof (Alieu Ebrima Cham Joof's great-aunt). Ndombuur is also the paternal grandmother of the renowned singer Marie Samuel Njie.

She attended primary and secondary school in the Gambia before leaving in 1982 for Nigeria, where she graduated from the University of Ife with a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) degree in 1986. The following year, she obtained her professional qualification as a barrister-at-law from the Nigeria Law School. She later became the Gambia's first expert in international maritime law after earning a master's of laws from the International Maritime Law Institute in Malta.[9]

Career[edit]

Roles under Presidents Sir Dawda Jawara and Yahya Jammeh[edit]

Fatou Bensouda was appointed as state counsel in 1987 and deputy director of public prosecutions in February 1994 for Sir Dawda Jawara's government.[9]

She played a central role in the early years of Gambian President Yahya Jammeh's regime, being chosen as his Solicitor General and legal adviser in 1996, after he took power in the 1994 Gambian coup d'état.[9] She became Minister of Justice and Attorney General in August 1998, but was dismissed from both posts in March 2000.[10]

She has been criticised in The Gambia for her role in the dictatorship of Yahya Jammeh.[11][12][13][14] and has denied the responsibility for her prosecutions and the cases of torture under the regime she was a part of.[15]

Yahya Jammeh's former regime was accused by human rights groups of various abuses.[16] He is notably accused of harassing the opposition and the press, after the coup in 1994.[17]

International criminal prosecutor and legal adviser[edit]

Bensouda's international career as a non-government civil servant began at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she worked as a legal adviser and a trial attorney before rising to the position of senior legal adviser and head of the Legal Advisory Unit (May 2002 to August 2004). On 8 August 2004, she was elected as Deputy Prosecutor (Prosecutions) with an overwhelming majority of votes by the Assembly of State Parties of the International Criminal Court. On 1 November 2004, she was sworn into Office as Deputy Prosecutor (Prosecutions).[18]

On 1 December 2011, the Assembly of States Parties of the ICC announced that an informal agreement had been reached to make Bensouda the consensus choice to succeed Luis Moreno-Ocampo as Prosecutor of the ICC.[19] She was formally elected by consensus on 12 December 2011.[3] Her term as prosecutor began on 15 June 2012.[19]

According to an Associated Press report on 6 November 2015, Bensouda was advised that war crimes may have been committed on the ship Mavi Marmara in 2010, when eight Turks and one Turkish-American were killed and several other activists were wounded by Israeli commandos, but she ruled that the case was not serious enough to merit an investigation on behalf of the ICC.[20]

In November 2017, Bensouda advised the ICC to consider seeking charges for human rights abuses committed during the War in Afghanistan such as alleged rapes and torture by the United States Armed Forces and the Central Intelligence Agency, crime against humanity committed by the Taliban, and war crimes committed by the Afghan National Security Forces.[21] John Bolton, National Security Advisor of the United States, claimed that the International Criminal Court had no jurisdiction over the United States, which has not ratified the Rome Statute that created the ICC. However, Afghanistan did ratify the Rome Statute, and thus crimes committed on its territory by anyone, even if he or she is a citizen of a country that did not accept the ICC's legitimacy, is subject to its jurisdiction.[22]

In April 2018 -- following the 2017-2018 Rohingya Crisis in which hundreds of thousands of mostly-Muslim Rohingya people in western Myanmar's Rakhine State were attacked or driven from their homes by government and civilian attackers, in alleged ethnic cleansing and genocide -- Bensouda sought a ruling from the ICC that it had jurisdiction over the crisis, despite Myanmar having never ratified the Rome Statute.[23] Because many of the Rohingya were driven into neighboring Bangladesh, a signatory to the statute, the court concurred with her, and a full-scale investigation was initiated.[24][25]

In December 2020, regarding Ukraine and Russia, Bensouda alleged that a preliminary ICC probe found indications of "a broad range of conduct" in 2013-2014 that constituted "war crimes and crimes against humanity", and said they were "within the jurisdiction of the [ICC]." The alleged crimes were connected with violent government suppression of pro-European protests from 2013 to 2014, and claims of crimes in Crimea around and following the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, and in eastern Ukraine, where Russia had supported rebels since 2014. However, the prosecutors did not get permission for a full-scale investigation until after Bensouda left the court.[26]

Less than a month before handing over her post to her successor, Karim Khan, she declared in a podcast: "Something I have experienced is pressure, attacks and politicization [but] what we do in this office is critically important," adding, "History will judge us."[27]

On June 15, 2021, after a nine-year mandate as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Bensouda stepped down, passing her role to Karim Khan.[28]

Other activities[edit]

Professional associations and boards[edit]

Bensouda is a member of the International Gender Champions (IGC).[29] She was previously a member of International Advisory Council, International Board of Maritime Healthcare.[1] She is a member of both The Gambia Bar Association and the Nigeria Bar Association. She is also a member of the International Association of Prosecutors.[2]

Bensouda also served on the Governing Council of the Gambia Committee on Harmful Traditional Practices (GAMCOTRAP) which is a leading women's rights organization fighting against harmful traditional practices and Member of The Advisory Board of The African Centre For Democracy and Human Rights Studies from 1998 to 2000.[30][31][32] Bensouda is a former 1st Vice President of The Gambia National Olympics Committee (GNOC).[2] From 1992-1995, she served as a board member of Gambia High School Board of Governors and a member of the Executive Committee of the Marina International School, The Gambia from 1994.[3][4]

Lectures[edit]

Bensouda has given several lectures on the ICC, and its challenges and successes, on several platforms, notably ''The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court: Successes, Challenges and the Promise of International Criminal Justice'' in the Lecture Series of the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law.[33][34][5]

Awards and honours[edit]

Fatou Bensouda speaking at the Oslo Forum 2014

Bensouda has been the recipient of various awards, most notably, the distinguished ICJ International Jurists Award in 2009, which was presented by the then President of India Pratibha Patil. Bensouda was presented the award for her contributions to criminal law both at the national and international level.[35]

Bensouda has also been awarded the 2011 World Peace Through Law Award presented by the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University in St. Louis, which recognized her work in considerably advancing the rule of law and thereby contributing to world peace.[36]

In 2012, Time magazine listed Bensouda among the 100 most influential people in the world in its annual Time 100 issue, noting her role as a "leading voice pressing governments to support the quest for justice".[37]

The African magazine Jeune Afrique named Bensouda as the 4th most influential person in Africa in the Civil Society category [38] and one of the 100 most Influential African Personalities.[39]

In December 2014, the Togolese magazine Africa Top Success named her "African of the Year", ahead of Isabel dos Santos, Angélique Kidjo, Lupita Nyong'o, Daphne Mashile-Nkosi and Koki Mutungi.[40]

In 2015, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.[41]

The same year, she was awarded a doctorate honoris causa from Keele University (UK).

Controversies[edit]

In October 2017, Bensouda and two members of her staff were accused by Der Spiegel of staying in touch with her predecessor, questioning the Prosecutor's own integrity when Bensouda sent confidential information to Ocampo. It was also suggested that Bensouda sought the advice of her predecessor on several occasions and perhaps allowed herself to be influenced by him, specifically in Kenya and Yazidi cases.[42]

The US State Department revoked Bensouda's visa in early April 2019.[43][44] The Guardian reported that the visa withdrawal seemed to be the fulfillment of a threat from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to prevent ICC personnel from investigating whether U.S. servicemen or U.S. officials engaged in war crimes in Afghanistan, Poland, Romania and Lithuania.[45][46][47] The visa revocation triggered criticism from United Nations officials.[48]

In June 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order that allowed the United States to block assets of ICC employees, and prevent them and their immediate families from entering the country. In September 2020, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Bensouda and another senior ICC official, Phakiso Mochochoko, would be sanctioned under this order, and that those who "materially support those individuals risk exposure to sanctions as well".[49]

On April 4, 2021, it was reported that the United States Government had officially lifted the sanctions against Bensouda and Mochochoko, and visa restrictions against other ICC personnel.[50]

Personal life[edit]

Bensouda is married to a Gambian-Moroccan businessman, Philip Bensouda.[51] They have three children.[52]

Bensouda is a practicing Muslim.[53] Questioned in 2011, on the role of her religion in her job, she answered: "Absolutely, definitely. Islam, as you know, is a religion of peace, and it gives you this inner strength, this inner ability and a sense of justice. Together with my experience, this will help a lot.".[54]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Foreign embassies in the UK". GOV.UK. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Gambia's Fatou Bensouda sworn in as ICC prosecutor". BBC News. 15 June 2012.
  3. ^ a b Farouk Chothia, "Africa's Fatou Bensouda is new ICC chief prosecutor", BBC News, 12 December 2011.
  4. ^ "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Associated with the International Criminal Court Designations | U.S. Department of the Treasury". home.treasury.gov. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  5. ^ Verma, Pranshu; Simons, Marlise (2 April 2021). "Reversing Trump, Biden Repeals Sanctions on Human Rights Prosecutor". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  6. ^ Blinken, Antony J. (2 April 2021). "Ending Sanctions and Visa Restrictions against Personnel of the International Criminal Court". U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  7. ^ "US Lifts Trump's Sanctions on ICC Prosecutor, Court Official". Voice of America. 2 April 2021. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  8. ^ "Fatou Bensouda, the woman who hunts tyrants". The Guardian. 2016.
  9. ^ a b c Perfect, David (2016). Historical Dictionary of The Gambia. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 59–60. ISBN 978-1-4422-6526-4.
  10. ^ "Africa's Fatou Bensouda is new ICC chief prosecutor - BBC News". BBC News. 12 December 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
  11. ^ "Fatou Bensouda interpellée sur les crimes commis sous Jammeh en Gambie". allAfrica.fr (in French). 13 August 2019. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  12. ^ "Bensouda accusée d'avoir tu les crimes commis sous Jammeh". amp.dw.com. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  13. ^ "Will Fatou Bensouda face the Truth Commission in Gambia?". www.justiceinfo.net. 11 July 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  14. ^ "Que savait Fatou Bensouda des crimes commis en Gambie sous le régime de Yahya Jammeh ?". Cameroonvoice (in French). 10 September 2019. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  15. ^ "Gambie : Fatou Bensouda peut-elle être inquiétée par l'enquête sur le régime de Yahya Jammeh ? – Jeune Afrique". JeuneAfrique.com (in French). 27 August 2019. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  16. ^ "Gambia pulls out of 'racist' ICC amid fears of a mass African exodus". The Independent. 26 October 2016. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  17. ^ "Africa's Fatou Bensouda is new ICC chief prosecutor". BBC News. 12 December 2011. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  18. ^ Akyeampong, Emmanuel Kwaku; Gates, Henry Louis (2012). Dictionary of African Biography. OUP USA. pp. 436–. ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5.
  19. ^ a b "Fatou Bensouda in Line to Become Next International Criminal Court Prosecutor", Coalition for the International Criminal Court, Media Advisory, 1 December 2011.
  20. ^ "ICC Repeats Prosecutor Has to Reconsider Gaza Flotilla Probe". AP. 6 November 2015. Retrieved 10 February 2017 – via The New York Times.
  21. ^ Corder, Mike (20 November 2017). "ICC prosecutor requests investigation into U.S. military, CIA for alleged war crimes in Afghanistan". The Toronto Star. Associated Press. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  22. ^ "Afghanistan".
  23. ^ "'Hallmarks of genocide': ICC prosecutor seeks justice for Rohingya". The Guardian. 10 April 2018. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  24. ^ "International Criminal Court says it has jurisdiction over alleged crimes against Rohingya," September 6, 2018, Reuters, retrieved February 9, 2024.
  25. ^ "ICC Finds Jurisdiction Over Rohingya Deportation Allegations," September 6, 2018, Courthouse News Service, retrieved February 9, 2024.
  26. ^ "ICC prosecutor to open probe into war crimes in Ukraine," February 28, 2022, Associated Press, retrieved February 9, 2024.
  27. ^ "Fatou Bensouda: "History Will Judge Us"". JusticeInfo.net. 20 May 2021.
  28. ^ "What is ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s legacy?," December 14, 2021, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), retrieved February 9, 2024.
  29. ^ Members International Gender Champions (IGC).
  30. ^ "Pioneer African Women in Law". African Women in Law. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  31. ^ Akyeampong, Emmanuel Kwaku; Gates, Henry Louis (2 February 2012). Dictionary of African Biography. OUP USA. ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5.
  32. ^ "Bensouda, Fatou Bomm". International Year Book and Statesmen's Who's Who. Archived from the original on 13 February 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  33. ^ "Lecture Series - Dr. Fatou Bensouda". legal.un.org. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  34. ^ "United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law". legal.un.org. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  35. ^ "Gambia's Fatou Bensouda Receives Int Jurists Award". The Point. 23 November 2009. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  36. ^ "World Peace Through Law Award". Washington University Law. Archived from the original on 21 February 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  37. ^ Roth, Kenneth (18 April 2012). "The World's 100 Most Influential People: 2012: Fatou Bensouda". Time Magazine. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  38. ^ Jeune Afrique, No. 2450-2451, 26 December 2010 – 8 January 2011.
  39. ^ Jeune Afrique, No. 2607-2608, 23 December 2007 – 5 January 2008.
  40. ^ Africa Top Success Awards: Votez pour l'Africaine de l'année 2014 Archived 28 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine, africatopsuccess.com; accessed 26 April 2018.
  41. ^ "BBC 100 Women 2015: Who is on the list?". BBC News. 17 November 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  42. ^ Becker, Sven (17 October 2017). "The Ocampo Affair: Current ICC Chief Prosecutor Weighed Down by Predecessor". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  43. ^ Matthew Kahn (5 April 2019). "Today's Headlines and Commentary". Lawfare. Archived from the original on 13 January 2024. Retrieved 6 April 2019. The State Department revoked the visa of Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, over her attempts to investigate U.S. conduct in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2004, reports The New York Times.
  44. ^ Marlise Simons, Megan Specia (5 April 2019). "U.S. Revokes Visa of I.C.C. Prosecutor Pursuing Afghan War Crimes". The New York Times. Paris. p. A4. Retrieved 6 April 2019. The visa revocation — confirmed on Friday by the office of the chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and the State Department in Washington — was assailed by rights advocates as unprecedented interference by the United States into the workings of the court, established nearly two decades ago to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
  45. ^ Patrick Wintour, Owen Bowcott, Julian Borger (5 April 2019). "US revokes ICC prosecutor's visa over Afghanistan inquiry". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 April 2019. The US state department does not provide details of individual visa cases but made clear it was implementing the threat last month from the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to impose restrictions on any ICC staff who investigated US or allied personnel. The move marked a hardening of America's policy of non-cooperation with the ICC, and a downgrading of the role of multilateralism.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  46. ^ "Focus: Alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Afghanistan since 1 May 2003". International Criminal Court. 9 April 2019. Archived from the original on 9 April 2019. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  47. ^ Owen Bowcott (5 March 2020). "Senior ICC judges authorise Afghanistan war crimes inquiry". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  48. ^ "U.S. revokes ICC prosecutor's entry visa over Afghanistan investigation". Reuters. The Hague. 4 April 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2019. United Nations human rights experts called the reaction "improper interference" in the work of the world's permanent war crimes court. It also drew criticism from within the European Union.
  49. ^ "International Criminal Court officials sanctioned by US" BBC News. September 2, 2020.
  50. ^ "US Government ending sanctions against ICC" Diplomat Magazine. April 4, 2021.
  51. ^ Mike Gitau. "The Essence of Fatou Bensouda". Nairobi Sun. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  52. ^ Farouk Chothia (12 December 2011). "Africa's Fatou Bensouda is new ICC chief prosecutor". BBC. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  53. ^ "Fatou Bensouda, trait d'union entre la Cour et l'Afrique". Le Temps (in French). 11 December 2011. ISSN 1423-3967. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  54. ^ "ICC's new prosecutor on Arab conflicts, how Islam plays a role in guiding her and her vision for the international court". العربية (in Arabic). 15 December 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2020.

External links[edit]

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Legal offices
Preceded by Attorney General and Minister of Justice of The Gambia
1998–2000 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court
2012–2021 		Succeeded by
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