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 founding member of the UPC, of war crimes committed from early September 2002 to 13 August 2003 in the Ituri region of the DRC. Specifically, the Chamber found Lubanga guilty as a co-perpetrator of the crimes of conscripting and enlisting child soldiers (children under the age of 15 years) into the FPLC and using them to actively participate in hostilities in the DRC, pursuant 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-perpetrators to build an army for the purposes of establishing military control over the Ituri region. 2 In a separate Decision on Sentence rendered on 10 July 2012, the Chamber sentenced Lubanga to a total sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment. 3 Being the very first sentence pronounced by a Trial Chamber of the ICC, the Lubanga Decision on Sentence represented the first opportunity to see how the ICC would interpret and apply its provisions on sentencing.
