“We should not be surprised by the efforts we’ve seen, particularly by the government of Kenya, to discredit the court’s work and to obscure the real victims — thousands of Kenyans who have yet to see any justice,” Human Rights Watch senior legal expert Elizabeth Evenson said.
“The saddest part of this ordeal… #Kenya convincing the world problem was (with the) #ICC while justice for #PEV (post election violence) became irrelevant,” international law expert Mark Kersten added in a tweet.
Officials from the court, which began work in 2002, are now trying to put the tensions behind them.
On November 12 court officials formally received their new premises overlooking the dunes and the North Sea in a seaside suburb of The Hague.
“We can now concentrate on getting settled in,” an ICC official said.
The first cases will be heard in January – with the much-anticipated trial of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, due to open on January 28.
Built at a cost of 206 million euros ($218 million) and paid for by state parties, the building “is a symbol of the permanency of the court and state parties’ commitment to the court,” ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said.
However, experts have warned the new building will be merely for show if member states refuse to continue investing in the ICC.
“If the court doesn’t have the resources it needs to conduct investigations and make it accessible in a way for all those (victims) who will never see the inside… a new building will mean very little,” Evenson said.
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