More than a Century Later: Time is Up

Sarah Erickson, J.D.

Benjamin B. Ferencz Fellow in Human Rights and Law

World Without Genocide

#MeToo #TimesUp – By now we all know their names and the hashtags used to condemn them – Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Bill Cosby, James Franco, even the President of the United States and Minnesota’s own Garrison Keillor. We’ve purged our movie collections in disgust at even seeing their faces or supporting their work. We know about the settlements they made in attempts to hide their actions, and we’ve seen footage of the rare occasions when one of these men has been criminally charged.

The majority of American women have or will experience sexual harassment in their lifetimes, and for many of them it will occur in the workplace by someone who has sway over the woman’s career. It is not surprising that most women do not report the harassment, just as it should not be surprising that the #MeToo movement has so many participants and shows no sign of slowing.

March 8, 2018 will mark the 107^th commemoration of International Women’s Day. It began in 1911 by the Suffragettes as a way to press for progress in gender parity. On this International Women’s Day, we ought to make the collective realization that sexual harassment and gender-based violence are not just an American problem but are a global epidemic.

You know the names of America’s disgraced famous men, but have you heard of Jean-Pierre Bemba, Omar Al-Bashir, Laurent Gbagbo, Dominic Ongwen, or Bosco Ntaganda? These men have all served as heads of state or commanders of military forces in their home countries. And they have all been charged with multiple counts of rape and other forms of gender-based violence by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The ICC is the only court in the world with the potential for true universal jurisdiction, and it is the only court in the world that refuses to give immunity for crimes committed based on political status. The ICC binds its member states, via the signing and ratification of the Rome Statute, to a strict code of responsibility for turning over to the Court those who were previously thought to be ‘untouchable,’ such as presidents.  These men, who have destroyed countless lives, cannot hide behind monetary settlements and non-disclosure agreements. They are brought before the Court, forced to hear the testimony of their accusers, convicted, and made to serve prison time as well as pay reparations to the victims and communities they terrorized.

The ICC prosecutes gender-based crimes and also bases its entire operational philosophy on a policy of gender equity. The policy as implemented today means that there is a female Chief Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and a female President of the Court, Judge Silvia Fernandez de Gurmendi. One-third of the Court’s judges are women, a fraction that is purposefully brought closer to one-half with each round of elections. The ICC’s gender policy also extends to its support staff and all functional areas. These are policies that we can learn from and implement in our own places of work. These policies need to be integrated into our own criminal justice system as well. It is time that the United States signs onto to the Rome Statute to become an active member of the ICC, participating with 124 other countries worldwide.

As Gloria Steinem once said, “The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.” Time is up – and the time is now.

I attended the two-week administrative meeting of the ICC at the United Nations in December.  I came away hopeful for change, change both globally and locally.

To learn more about what the International Criminal Court does to combat gender-based violence and discrimination against women, please join us for a program on April 9, 2018 at Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Information is available at https://worldwithoutgenocide.org/events-and-programs/upcoming-events