Rob Retchless

🔴 Turning Rhetoric into Reform: New #VictimsRightsWorkingGroup (VRWG) paper urges the @IntlCrimCourt to strengthen #outreach and victim #participation. Victims’ rights are central to the #ICC’s legitimacy, but the Court continues to underfund and sideline outreach and victim participation. The new VRWG briefing, released during the ICC’s Victims’ Strategy 2025 seminar, outlines 3 key challenges: 🔸 Lack of early, two-way outreach 🔸 Restrictive jurisprudence limiting participation 🔸 Operational barriers & underfunded legal aid It offers 6 urgent recommendations for the ICC & States Parties: 1️⃣ Institutionalise early, victim-centred outreach 2️⃣ Ensure coherence & consistency in victim participation 3️⃣ Fully implement the 2024 Legal Aid Policy & remove arbitrary caps 4️⃣ Reduce procedural & logistical barriers 5️⃣ Embed evaluation & accountability 6️⃣ Ensure funding & victims’ rights KPIs In short: Victim participation is not optional. It’s essential to justice and to the ICC’s credibility and survival. 👉 Read the full briefing paper here: fidh.org/IMG/pdf/vrwg_june_2… 📸 REDRESS. A training on victims' rights before the ICC in Uganda