Fatou Bensouda

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Bensouda during the 52nd Munich Security Conference 2016

Fatou Bom Bensouda (born January 31, 1961 in Bathurst ) is a Gambian lawyer. From June 2012 to June 2021 she was chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague . Previously, Bensouda was deputy prosecutor at the ICC, and from 1998 to 2000 she was Minister of Justice in Gambia.

Degree, lawyer and minister in Gambia

Fatou Bensouda was born in Bathurst in 1961 as the daughter of a civil servant. Her father died of diabetes when she was a young girl. After attending elementary and high school, a government scholarship enabled her to study at the University of Ife (today: Obafemi Awolowo University - OAU) in Ile-Ife , Nigeria . After graduating from the OAU, she went to the Nigerian Law School in Bwari (near Abuja ) and from there to the International Maritime Law Institute of the IMO ( International Maritime Organization ), a UN institution in Malta . She completed this postgraduate course with a dissertation on The 1986 United Nations Convention on Conditions for Registration of Ships: An Endorsement of the Open Registry Concept? from. With her knowledge, she was Gambia's first expert on international maritime law . After completing her studies, she began her career in 1987 as a public prosecutor and senior public prosecutor in the judiciary in her home country.

In 1993 Bensouda was appointed Deputy Director for Public Prosecutions in the Office of the Prosecutor General of Gambia. In 1996 she became Advocate General and Secretary for Legal Affairs there. As early as 1998, she was appointed Attorney General (in some cases comparable to a General Prosecutor) and Minister of Justice. During this time, she took part in international conferences on various legal topics.

In March 2000, Bensouda left the civil service to practice law in Banjul . Since January 2002 she has been the managing director of the international commercial and industrial bank in Gambia.

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and International Criminal Court

However, she quit this position after four months in May 2002 when she became legal advisor to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). She held this office until she was appointed Deputy Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in November 2004. She was elected to this office with 58 out of 78 votes and thus prevailed against two opposing candidates. In addition to Serge Brammertz , the prosecutor responsible for investigations, Bensouda was another representative of the chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo . The court is particularly concerned with the trial of the “ child soldiers ” and the indictment of Thomas Lubanga in the Congo .

In November 2011, it was announced that the signatory states to the Rome Statute had agreed to nominate Bensouda as the next chief prosecutor of the ICC. Her appointment was submitted on December 1st. On December 12th, Bensouda was elected to office unopposed.

In November 2017, she applied to the court to open criminal proceedings regarding the war in Afghanistan since 2002 . Since Afghanistan has acceded to the Rome Statute, she can indict anyone of any nationality who has committed war crimes in the country. The later National Security Advisor to US President Donald Trump, John R. Bolton , attacked them personally in the press. In April 2019, the United States withdrew her entry visa to the United States in response to the investigation into possible war crimes. Such a move had previously been announced by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo .

In March 2020, the ICC cleared the way for investigations into possible war crimes in Afghanistan. This also includes investigations against US soldiers and employees of the US secret service CIA . As a result, US President Trump approved an order three months later, according to which, among other things, any possessions of employees of the court in the USA can be frozen. In September 2020, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Bensouda would be placed on a sanctions list. Employees of hers would also be punished by the US government. The ICC and 72 ICC member states condemned the sanctions. The German Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas criticized the US sanctions at the end of October 2020 in a Bundestag debate.

On February 12, 2021, Karim Ahmad Khan from Great Britain was elected as their successor as chief prosecutor by the states parties.

At the beginning of April 2021, the US government, which took office in January 2021, withdrew the previous government's sanctions against Bensouda.

honors and awards

Private

Bensouda is a member of the International Gender Champions network , which advocates gender equality in international organizations.

Radio feature

  • Beate Ziegs: The Prosecutor: Fatou Bensouda and the International Criminal Court . WDR / NDR 2017.

Web links

Commons : Fatou Bensouda  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arnold Hughes, David Perf: Historical dictionary of the Gambia (= Historical dictionaries of Africa. Vol. 109). 4th edition. Scarecrow Press, Lanham MD 2008, ISBN 0-8108-5825-8
  2. ^ International Bar Association December 2, 2011: International Criminal Court: the next chief prosecutor? Fatou Bensouda
  3. ^ Nigerian Law School - Lagos Campus - Homepage
  4. ↑ IMO homepage
  5. ^ IMO - International Maritime Law Institute: Fatou Bensouda
  6. ^ First proceedings on child soldiers (tagesschau.de archive) tagesschau.de on November 9, 2006
  7. ↑ The next chief prosecutor at the ICC comes from Gambia. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . December 1, 2011, accessed December 1, 2011 .
  8. ↑ http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/bensouda102.html ( Memento from January 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) News from the Tagesschau from December 12, 2011.
  9. ↑ ICC-02/17
  10. ↑ Hague Prosecutor Seeks to Pursue Afghan Case That Could Ensnare Americans.
  11. ↑ She messes with everyone: The lawyer Fatour Bensouda wants to indict the USA with war crimes.
  12. ↑ «Dear Prosecutor, as far as we are concerned, you are dead».
  13. ↑ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-icc-prosecutor/us-revokes-icc-prosecutors-entry-visa-over-afghanistan-investigation-idUSKCN1RG2NP
  14. ↑ The Hague: Germany and 71 states condemn US sanctions - DER SPIEGEL - Politics. In: DER SPIEGEL. Retrieved November 4, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Chief Prosecutor Bensouda on US sanctions list . In: tagesschau.de, September 2, 2020 (accessed on September 2, 2020).
  16. ↑ https://daserste.ndr.de/panorama/archiv/2020/Strafgerichtshof-Endlich-Gerechtigkeit-fuer-CIA-Opfer,strafgerichtshof100.html
  17. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung: New Chief Prosecutor at the World Criminal Court. Retrieved February 14, 2021 .
  18. ↑ USA lift sanctions against International Criminal Court. In: Der Spiegel. Retrieved April 3, 2021 .
  19. ↑ Over 200 listed for National Awards. (No longer available online.) The Daily Observer , March 7, 2011, archived from the original on December 9, 2012 ; accessed on October 22, 2011 .
  20. ↑ Fatou Bensouda bags doctorate degree - The Point Newspaper, Banjul, The Gambia. In: thepoint.gm. Retrieved June 29, 2017 .
  21. ↑ Forbes Africa: Africa's 50 Most Powerful Women. In: Forbes Africa. March 6, 2020, accessed January 30, 2021 (American English).
  22. ^ Macky decorates ICC Prosecutor Bensouda with “Commander in the Order of the Lion” Award - The Point. In: thepoint.gm. Retrieved May 24, 2021 (American English).
  23. ↑ Fatou Bensouda: Prosecutor, International Criminal Court. In: GenderChampions.com. Retrieved December 26, 2019 .
predecessor Office successor
Hawa Sisay-Sabally Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Gambia
1998–2000 		Pap Cheyassin Secka
Luis Moreno Ocampo Chief Prosecutor at the
International Criminal Court in The Hague
June 15, 2012–15. June 2021 		Karim Khan
personal data
SURNAME Bensouda, Fatou
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bensouda, Fatou Bom (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Gambian lawyer, minister, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Bathurst , Gambia