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ICCSN contributes to first International Criminal Court conviction of Congolese warlord
St. Clair Shores senior Marissa Harden listens to Mount Pleasant junior Erica Maylee Wednesday in Anspach 157 during the International Criminal Court Student Network Central Michigan Chapter's meeting. Wednesday morning, the ICC found Thomas Lubanga of the Democratic Republic of Congo guilty of conscripting and enlisting children to participate in the country's civil war. It was the first ruling since the court was established in 2002. (Mike Mulholland/Photo Editor)
Some Central Michigan University students had reason to take pride in the International Criminal Court handing down its first conviction Wednesday.
Members of CMU’s chapter of the International Criminal Court Student Network reveled in the ICC’s successful trial and unanimous conviction of war criminal Thomas Lubanga Dyilo for enlisting and conscripting children into war.
The ICC, located in The Hague, Netherlands, is a tribunal started in 2002 to try individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
According to the unamninous decision, Lubanga, a Congolese warlord, drafted and used children under the age of 15 to actively participate in hostilities in The Democratic Republic of Congo in order to gain political and military control over the region.
Although CMU’s student chapter of the organization, the ICCSN, did not have an active role in prosecuting Lubanga, they still felt their hard work had been rewarded.
The organization, one of only five university chapters of the ICCSN in the world, has had an active role on campus in raising awareness about the ICC and the issues it addresses.
Last December, the ICCSN sent two members, including current president Mount Pleasant junior Erica Maylee to the United Nations for the 10th Session of the Assembly of States Parties, where they witnessed the election of Fatou Bensouda as the new Chief Prosecutor of the ICC.
In addition, they participate in a weekly radioshow at blogtalkradio.com at 7 p.m. Tuesday’s called Ethics Talk and recently sent two students to The Hague for a conference held by the ICC on Lubanga.
“We’re a small group, but we do a lot,” Maylee said.
CMU’s chapter of ICCSN is currently composed of only five students. With Maylee serving as president, the group also includes Plymouth junior Megan Blue, Saint Clair Shores senior Marissa Harden, Flushing junior Rebeccah Woodke and a former Central Michigan Life employee, Clinton senior Randi Shaffer.
Maylee said the decision to convict Lubanga was motivational for her.
“For me, the announcement is really moving and inspiring” Maylee said. “To actually accomplish a case is a crucial step for the ICC.”
Shaffer said the verdict will allow the ICC to be more effective in dealing with war criminals.
“One of the things I’m really stoked about — it’s gong to set a precedent,” Shaffer said. “The Lubanga case has ended after 10 years; it is our first verdict, and it sends a clear message.”
Harden said the decision will bring much-needed attention to their group.
“For me, I think it is something people can no longer ignore,” Harden said. “They know now we exist.”
Bringing awareness to the ICC has been one of the ICCSN’s main perogatives throughout the chapter’s two-year history. The United States is not currently a member state of the ICC, and very few people on and off campus know what the ICC is or what they accomplish.
“My parents don’t even know what it is,” Blue said.
The group plans will be holding events in April, which is Human Rights Month, to help raise awareness for the ICC.
Shaffer said the Kony 2012 movement, a movement by the group Invisible Children to bring attention to Joseph Kony, a Ugandan warlord who has direct parallels to Lubanga in the fact that he also drafts children under 15 for soldiers, was a clear example for the group.
“Lubanga was convicted, and no one knew, no one noticed, no one cared.” Shaffer said. “Yet if Kony gets arrested by the ICC, it is going to get attention. That is what we are trying to accomplish here on campus as well.”
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I just did a Yahoo News search on this.
No other news organization in the world, except for CM LIFE did a story on this. Not even the European newspaper, etc.
This isn’t news. I can’t find it on liberal outfits like the New York Times, MSNBC, CNN, etc.
Why does CM LIFE waste time on this.
Nobody, except a handful of liberal women at CMU and Duke even care about this.
There’s more Yahoo News about Ernie Ziegler’s firing.
Can’t you ladies spend your time doing something more creative?? Like solving problems here in Michigan. Why don’t you do something constructive like volunteering for Special Olympics, Big Brother, Sister. Reading to children. Of course, you wouldn’t get to jetset over to the Hague, would you???
When is CM LIFE going to find out who paid for all these people to go to Europe?? Did they go first-class?? Etc.
Michmediaperson. Actually you are incorrect. You do not know how to navigate the sea of information. Thus, I am here to help and solve your problem. I trust this counts as “solving problems” at the “local level”. Here are the coordinates to help steer your vessel forward into the Truth. Go to Yahoo News and type in:
Lubanga Lessons Learned ICCSN
You will see much more than coverage from CM-LIFE.
I leave you with this:
To help further calibrate your vessel – which is patently off course – I suggest reading Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind. Repeatedly. Do a “yahoo news” search on that. A class in logic would also be very useful as your argument is full of fallacies and therefore is not “Truth Preserving”. Best of luck to you and a big hug. xoxoxo
Michmediaperson is just a sad little man who, apparently, did not get enough attention from his Mommy. So he spends all his time criticizing the world class work of his alma mater and spewing fascist crap from Limbaugh world. Just ignore him.
Lennox Buster: I respectfully disagree with your response to this debate. Insults are completely unnecessary and do nothing but increase the hostility in this world. In fact, there are some points that Michmediaperson says that are very good indeed – such as how the public should be very mindful of how CMU uses the money of the good people of Michigan. CMU’s outsourcing of jobs to non-Michigan companies is a breach of CMU’s fiduciary duty to the People, and I thank Michmediaperson for driving that point home. Michmediaperson simply has his facts wrong on this issue. I hope that when I have my facts wrong, and someone corrects me, I do not have to suffer from inappropriate hostility. Respectful disagreement is what makes this country great.
Why is this published? Because Randi Shaffer is a former reporter and editor at CM Life. Quoting her, even though she doesn’t appear to be on staff anymore, is such a tremendous conflict of interest.
I did research during lunch. Reuters, a liberal global news gathering group, like the
liberal Associated Press, did a story on this trial. So, 2 media outlets, CM LIFE
and Reuters covered the trial.
Reuters had a couple in-depth articles. Apparently, these CMU gals aren’t conveying the whole story.
There are 14 other countries guilty of kiddies going into military action. 2 of them are Afghanistan and Iraq.
So, could these girls tell us if they will go down to Grand Rapids and Detroit and demand Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, our 2 left-wing US Senators, stop aid to these two countries? Will they go even one step further. Will they ask the ICC to subpoena Obama, Levin, Stabenow and any Democrat who voted aid to these two countries since they’re accessories to the crime???? If I give the keys knowingly to someone to use as a getaway car in a bank robbery, I’m also going to be charged with a crime. Seems only right Obama, Stabenow and Levin are accessories.
Two other countries are India and the Phillipines. When Mike Rao was CMU president, I think we were recruiting students from India. Since that country is doing what these girls are protesting against, don’t you think you 5 should go to the next CMU Board of Trustees and demand no more recruiting of students from India, the Philipines or any of the 15 countries listed in the Reuters story doing what you’re protesting about???? Seems to me we should bar people from these 15 countries.
I assume you and Duke will mount campaigns against any American countries who are outsourcing jobs to India and the Phillipines and the other 13 countries. Boycott Dell, United Airlines, etc. Will you ask CMU administrators to not buy any more Dell products??? No more university flights on United???
It’s not CM LIFE’s fault. They’re relying on these girl’s information.
One last question for these co-eds. The USA isn’t part of this organization. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and even, Obama, have said no.
In some ways, don’t you ladies think that you and your Duke friends went around Obama and our State Department? They set foreign policy. As much as I don’t like Obama, on foreign policy, he is still our president. Don’t you think you were disloyal to him and to this country????
Thanks opiniojuris for the nice comments. Liberals, socialists, multiculturalists, don’t want civil 2-way conversation. It’s their way or the highway of insults hurled! Respectful disagreement is indeed what makes this country great.