ABSTRACT
On 14 March 2012, Trial Chamber I (‘the Chamber’) of the International Criminal Court (or ‘Court’) convicted Thomas Lubanga Dyilo (‘Lubanga’), the former President and found ing member of the UPC, of war crimes commit ted from early September 2002 to 13 August 2003 in the Ituri region of the DRC. Specifi cally, the Chamber found Lubanga guilty as a co-perpet rator of the crimes of conscript ing and enlist ing child soldiers (chil dren under the age of 15 years) into the FPLC and using them to actively parti cip ate in hostil it ies in the DRC, pursu ant to Articles 8(2)(e)(vii) and 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute of the ICC (‘Statute’). 1 These crimes were the result of a common plan by Lubanga and his co-perpet rat ors to build an army for the purposes of estab lish ing milit ary control over the Ituri region. 2 In a separ ate Decision on Sentence rendered on 10 July 2012, the Chamber sentenced Lubanga to a total sentence of 14 years’ impris onment. 3 Being the very fi rst sentence pronounced by a Trial Chamber of the ICC, the Lubanga Decision on Sentence repres en ted the fi rst oppor tun ity to see how the ICC would inter pret and apply its provi sions on senten cing.
