Could Moreno-Ocampo Represent LRA Victims at the ICC?

John Louth at OUP passes along the latest potential twist in Moreno-Ocampo’s career path:

The former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Mr Luis Moreno Ocampo, has offered to represent the victims of Barlonyo Massacre in the court.Barlonyo village in Agweng Sub-county, Lira District is where more than 400 people were massacred by suspected Lord’s Resistance Army rebels on February 21, 2004. A total of 301 people are buried at the memorial site in a mass grave.

However, more people are believed to have been killed in the attack as 11,000 people were in the camp at the time. “I have something to offer you, I want to be your lawyer,” Mr Ocampo told the survivors who gathered at Barlonyo to welcome him on Friday.

He then asked those in the crowd who lost relatives in Barlonyo massacre to raise their hands and all did. He then offered to represent them in court. Mr Ocampo said initially, it was thought only 200 were killed in Barlonyo but now he knows more people were killed.

“We can document that. The killing, abduction and the looting and we can present this to the ICC. We can request to expand the arrest warrant, the number of victims and the number of crimes and document well what happened here,” he said.

“We can present this to the ICC we can request to expand the arrest warrant we can expand the number of victims and number of crimes.” Mr Ocampo was invited to Lango region by Children of Peace, an NGO supporting the vulnerable and victims of the Barlonyo in Lira District

I have no idea whether Moreno-Ocampo actually intends to represent Barlonyo victims at the ICC, but it’s worth thinking about some of the potential ethical issues that such representation would involve. Like all counsel who are involved with the Court, Moreno-Ocampo would be subject to the Code of Professional Conduct for Counsel. The most relevant provision is Art. 12, “Impediments to representation”:

1. Counsel shall not represent a client in a case:

(a) If the case is the same as or substantially related to another case in which counsel or his or her associates represents or formerly represented another client and the interests of the client are incompatible with the interests of the former client, unless the client and the former client consent after consultation; or

(b) In which counsel was involved or was privy to confidential information as a staff member of the Court relating to the case in which counsel seeks to appear. The lifting of this impediment may, however, at counsel’s request, be ordered by the Court if deemed justified in the interests of justice. Counsel shall still be bound by the duties of confidentiality stemming from his or her former position as a staff member of the Court.

I don’t think Art. 12(1)(a) would apply, because the OTP doesn’t have “clients” in the sense of private counsel — especially given that the victims of crimes have their own counsel, making clear that they are not represented by the OTP. But it would be interesting to see the OTP’s position, because it could at least plausibly argue that the provision would require Moreno-Ocampo to get its permission to represent the Barlonyo victims. There is no question that the Barlonyo case is “substantially related” to Moreno-Ocampo’s previous work on the LRA cases; after all, the OTP pursued those cases on his watch and Moreno-Ocampo was responsible for opening the Uganda investigation in the first place. And although the interests of the OTP and the victims often align, that is certainly not necessarily the case — see, e.g., the Lubanga controversy over sexual violence. So I could see Bensouda worrying that Moreno-Ocampo might pursue a strategy for the Barlonyo victims that was inconsistent with his previous work on the LRA cases.

Which leads to Art. 12(1)(b), the confidentiality provision. That provision could easily be fatal to Moreno-Ocampo’s potential representation of the Barlonyo victims, even if the OTP didn’t oppose it. No former member of the OTP could have had greater access to confidential information than Moreno-Ocampo; after all, he was the Prosecutor for eight years. Could he represent the victims without in any way revealing or relying on confidential information he had access to while he was the Prosecutor? I’m willing to give Moreno-Ocampo the benefit of the doubt that he would take his confidentiality obligation seriously, but I’m skeptical that he — or anyone in a similar position — could maintain the mental “Chinese wall” necessary to avoid information bleed. So I could very easily see the Court deciding that it would not be in the “interests of justice” — or in the interests of the victims themselves — to permit Moreno-Ocamo to represent the Barlonyo victims given his previous role in the Court.

I have no problem with Moreno-Ocampo using his clout and visibility to promote the interests of the Barlonyo victims. But I’m not sure whether he should actually represent them at the ICC. In my view, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for Moreno-Ocampo to navigate the exceptionally complicated confidentiality issues that would be involved in working on behalf of victims in a situation he was once responsible for investigating. We’ll see what happens.