Erasing the ‘Victim’ from the ‘Victim–Perpetrator’

Abstract

Abstract Dominic Ongwen — child soldier turned warlord — was tried, convicted and sentenced by Trial Chamber IX of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Using the theoretical vehicle of expressivism, this article aims to look beyond the straightforward, normative consequences of his adjudication, identifying the Trial Judgment’s — and hence, the ICC’s — implicit, didactic/symbolic messages around his controversial victim–perpetrator duality. To achieve this goal, the article deploys the methods of empirical, discourse, and legal/doctrinal analysis, which examine the Judgment’s relevant legal, contextual and linguistic choices around the depiction of Ongwen’s two portraits — that of the victim and that of the perpetrator. Through the juxtaposition of the two portraits, defined by the absence of victimhood and the overpresence of perpetratorhood, the researcher extracts the Judgment’s expressive imprint, including the preservation of the victim–perpetrator dichotomy, the non-elucidation of the child soldiering phenomenon, the problematic deductions on the role and liability of child soldiers, as well as the defendant’s over-stigmatization. In light of the above, the article assesses the messages’ adherence to the aspirations and principles of expressivism.