The Women's Caucus was formed in February 1997, to intervene in the ongoing Preparatory Committee meetings for the establishment of an International Criminal Court at the United Nations. Women realized that without an organized caucus, women's concerns would not be actively defended in the documents and process of creation of an International Criminal Court. The legal issues in the ICC are complex and sensitive. They require people from different legal systems and cultures to arrive at a consensus on specific issues that may challenge local traditions or beliefs. The gender-related issues are particularly sensitive, as they are not as well understood. Gender-related crimes are often perceived to be private or individual crimes that do not rise to the level of international human rights law, or that are perceived to be taken care of by a "neutral" statute. However, the experience of women has been that neutrality usually results in leaving out crimes against women and the ways that women, because of their socially constructed roles in society, are disproportionately affected. It was these concerns that the Women""s Caucus sought to address in the process of creation of an International Criminal Court. By advocating the codification of crimes of sexual, reproductive and gender violence, and inclusion of gender sensitive processes and criteria for personnel, the Caucus tried to ensure that the Court has capacity to implement justice for women. | The first part of this video is footage of Women's Caucus staff setting up and testing the camera equipment in the office, and chatting with each other. The second part of the video is an interview with Medard Rwelamira, head of the policy unit in the South African Ministry of Justice, head of the South African delegation to the ICC, and vice-chair of UN Preparatory Commission of the ICC. He speaks on the topic of South Africa's involvement with the ICC and its current progress of implementing legislation on the national level that meets the international statute. Rwelamira summarizes the importance of the ICC, stating that when the statute comes into existence, it will help Africa cope with the atrocities that occurred in recent decades - such as Rwanda, Burundi, and Somalia. The ratification and implementation of the statute would provide a basis for states to deal with problems. He continues with an explanation about the process of transforming international standards to domestic laws, mentioning that in South Africa, they have created and submitted legislation to the government for ratification. He continues to discuss what requirements were taken into consideration in the creation of the legislation. The legislation will include offenses as defined in the statute. It will also include other provisions that reflect the essence of the statute and even go beyond it. The third portion consists of night b-roll of the ocean and a hotel.
Contributor | Contribuidor:
WITNESS (Creator) and Women's Caucus for Gender Justice (Creator)
unedited footage, metraje sin editar, moving image, interviews, and entrevistas
Extent | Alcance:
26 minutes, 28 seconds
Rights - Use & Reproduction | Derechos - uso & reproducción:
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Language | Idioma:
English
Place of publication | Lugar de publicación:
Brooklyn (N.Y.)
Topic | Tema:
Civil and political rights--Women's rights, Mujeres--Derechos--Derechos políticos y civiles, Laws, justice, and judicial proceedings--Laws and legislation, Leyes, justicia y procedimientos judiciales--Leyes y legislación, Laws, justice, and judicial proceedings--Judicial systems, and Leyes, justicia y procedimientos judiciales--Sistemas judiciales
Place Name | Nombre del lugar:
Africa--South Africa--Cape Town and África--Sudáfrica--Ciudad del Cabo
General Note | Notas generales:
A/D flag: physDigital; Generation: original; Signal format: NTSC; Carrier number 1 of 1
UTL DAMS PID:
hrdi:63fec4d3-79a0-4d7c-a097-bdd6394aff6e
Local Identifier| Identificador local :
B01549-1_00_00_05 and witness_ihwe_3115
Related Resource – Host | Recursos relacionados:
Women's Caucus for Gender Justice's Footage for "If Hope Were Enough" Documentary (title) and https://txarchives.org/hrdi/finding_aids/00005.xml (uri)