Professor Darryl Robinson is part of a team of four Canadian international law professors who have been awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant to attend and study the upcoming Kampala “Review Conference.” At the historic diplomatic conference, diplomats and legal advisers from more than 110 states will make decisions on proposed changes to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the future shape of international criminal justice.

The Statute of the International Criminal Court was adopted in 1998 at a diplomatic conference in Rome, Italy. Since its creation, the ICC has investigated mass atrocities in four situations: northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Darfur, and Central African Republic. Its first trials are underway, and the Court has issued an arrest warrant against President Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan.

The Review Conference, to be held in Kampala, Uganda in May-June 2010, provides the international community with the first opportunity to consider amendments to the Rome Statute and to discuss measures that would further strengthen international criminal justice. Delegates will debate whether to include the crime of aggression to the Statute and whether to criminalize the use of certain weapons in internal armed conflicts. Delegates will also discuss plans to deepen international cooperation, enhance national responses to crimes, reach out to victims and affected communities, and harmonize the pursuit of peace and justice.

“The Review Conference will affect the way international criminal justice is carried out in the years to come”, says Robinson, who was a member of the Canadian delegation to the Rome Conference that created the Rome Statute and was involved in subsidiary negotiations, and also served as an adviser to the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC. “Our research project will study the process and outcome of the negotiations from diverse perspectives, including gender dimensions, institutional design and international relations implications.”

The other members of the research team are Professor Joanna Harrington of the University of Alberta, the Principal Investigator, and Professor John Currie of the University of Ottawa and Professor Valerie Oosterveld of the University of Western Ontario. Each member of the team has been involved in international criminal law negotiations.

The grant, in the amount of $70,736, will support a two-year research project, enabling the team to attend and observe the Conference, conduct additional research, support student research assistance and disseminate their research.

“SSHRC is committed to enhancing the quality of, and support for, research and research training in the social sciences and humanities through world-class review processes,” said Chad Gaffield, President of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, in a press release.