Gambian
Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been recognised
among TIME magazine’s top 100 most influential people for the second time.
According
to the citation for the recognition, Ms Fatou B. Bensouda’s latest achievement
reaffirms her role as a “leading voice pressing governments to support the
quest for justice”.
She
was first recognized as one of the World’s Most Influential People in 2012,
shortly before taking office at the ICC as the first African woman to assume a
top position in an international tribunal. This year, she was commended for her
resilience and determination during a turbulent time for the Court.
“Justice
may be blind,” wrote TIME’s Africa bureau chief, Aryn Baker. “But when it comes
to the politics of where it can be applied, Bensouda knows she has to go in
with her eyes wide open.”
Last
year, Bensouda’s home country’s dictator unceremoniously announced he was
withdrawing the country’s membership of the Rome Statute. The international
reaction was shocking. However, after his defeat at the December 1st
Presidential polls, the new coalition government pledged The Gambia will remain
a member of the international body without reservations.
In
March this year, the Chief Prosecutor met President Adama Barrow in Brussels
during the leader’s European trip, where Gambia’s support was formally renewed.
There
have been wider calls by individuals and civil society bodies for the defeated
dictator to be prosecuted for crimes deaths, disappearances, torture, rapes
among others under his 22 year rule in the small West African nation.
Last
month, rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) began advocating for The Gambia
government to “outline concrete steps to investigate and prosecute grave crimes”
committed under former president Yahya Jammeh.
As
one time Minister of Justice of The Gambia, Bensouda began her international
career as a non-government civil servant at the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda, before becoming Deputy Prosecutor and later Prosecutor of the ICC.
