On February 28, 2024, Trial Chamber IX of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a momentous reparations order with € 52,429,000 awarded to 49,772 victims of Ugandan war criminal Dominic Ongwen. The extent of these reparations is a record for the ICC. The Chamber ordered collective community-based reparations focused on rehabilitation and symbolic/satisfaction measures, consisting of collective rehabilitation programmes, as well as a symbolic award of € 750 for all eligible victims acknowledging the desire of victims to obtain individual reparations.

In 2021 Ongwen, a top commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels, was found guilty of 61 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Northern Uganda between 2002 and 2005, and sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment. Among other things Ongwen was sentenced for sexual and gender-based crimes (SGBC) and the crimes of conscription and use of child soldiers in armed hostilities. 

The Chamber concluded that the direct victims of attacks, direct victims of SGBC and former child soldiers suffered serious and long-lasting physical, moral and material harm. The indirect victims of all of these crimes suffered moral and material harm. In addition, the Chamber found that the entire community of victims suffered community harm, and that children of direct victims and children born out of SGBC suffered transgenerational harm as a result of the crimes for which Ongwen was convicted (i.e. a phenomenon, whereby social violence is passed on from ascendants to descendants with traumatic consequences for the latter).

The Chamber adopted the Principles as set out in the 2021 Ntaganda Reparations Order while slightly amending the principles related to the ‘Types and Modalities of Reparations’ and ‘Child Victims’. Regarding the latter, the Court considered the extensive manner in which children were affected by Ongwen’s crimes and adjusted the principle to ensure that it includes: (i) all victims who were children at the time the crimes were committed or who were born as a result of such crimes; and (ii) the four principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the child-right approach.

The Trust Fund for Victims (TVF) was instructed to design and implement a reparation plan in consultation with the victims. Having found Ongwen indigent for the purposes of reparations, the Chamber encouraged the TVF to seek additional funds to fulfil its order.