Key principles for ICC communications

Key principles for ICC communications Informal comments to the Registry ReVision team CICC Team on Communications March 2015 The ongoing ReVision of the ICC Registry offers an invaluable opportunity to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its communications functions, but also for the Court to take stock and define its communication priorities for the next phase of its existence. For many years, the Team on Communications of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) has provided the Public Information and Documentation Section (PIDS) with input on its strategies and activities with a view to maximizing their impact. Significant progress has been made in the first years of the ICC s existence in building up its public profile, informing the public at large and global audiences - including among others academics, legal professionals, civil society and the media - of its mandate and proceedings, and reaching out to victims and communities affected by its work. The Team welcomes the opportunity to provide some informal comments to the ReVision team based on its observations, lessons learned exercises and best practices from other tribunals. While these comments focus on the role of the Registry, it also addresses, where relevant, the role of other organs and cooperation between different organs, reflecting the need to ensure accurate and consistent messaging and communications from the Court as a whole. 1. The role of public information and outreach The ICC Registry is responsible for the delivery of accurate, timely and neutral information about and on behalf of the ICC as a whole, as well as certain messages about and on behalf of individual Court organs and units. This outreach and public information mandate is fundamental to realizing the objectives of the Rome Statute, and enhancing the Court s overall cost-effectiveness, efficiency and fair and independent functioning. PIDS public information and outreach materials and activities are often complementary. This work is crucial to the Court upholding its legal obligation to ensure the publicity of its judicial proceedings, particularly given the great distance between the courtroom and affected communities. Meanwhile, activities described as reaching out, or even as outreach, by other Court organs or offices are separate to the very specific work of the PIDS Outreach Unit with victims and affected communities. PIDS public information activities include distributing information about the principles, objectives and activities of the Court to target audiences beyond directly affected communities and to the public at large. These activities aim at increasing general understanding and awareness about the Court. There is a direct link between increased global levels of knowledge of the Court, and its mandate, and greater support for it and the Rome Statute system, be it in the form of cooperation, prosecutions of international crimes at the national level, or in increasing ratification and implementation of the Statute. PIDS Outreach Unit carries out activities designed to promote understanding of and support for the Court s mandate in ICC situation countries and other directly affected communities, thereby managing expectations and enabling victims and affected communities to follow and understand ICC processes, by engaging them in a two-way dialogue. These activities provide information, promote understanding and, hence, support for the Court s work, and provide access to judicial proceedings. The purpose of this twoway dialogue is to allow victims and affected communities to provide feedback to the Court, allowing it 1

to integrate their views and perceptions in its activities and processes. Outreach is also vital to creating conditions conducive to supporting the Court s operations more generally in situation countries. Given its vital role in promoting support, cooperation and understanding, the Court should strengthen its public information and outreach capacity in all phases of the Court s work, including preliminary examinations; Public information and outreach are complementary; any structural revision should support the two functions working in a coordinated and harmonized way. 2. Coordination of messaging through the Registry/PIDS While respecting the independence of its different organs, steps should be taken to ensure that the Court presents itself to a greater extent as a cohesive body through the Registry in line with the One Court principle whether in headquarters or in the field. In order to safeguard the perception of independence and neutrality the Court, the Registry should take the lead in ensuring that messaging is consistent and represents all different organs of the Court and parties in the public sphere, while acknowledging the importance of the Office of the Prosecutor s ability to maintain its own channel of communications and its own communications functions. This is particularly important given the global spread of traditional and social media, which allows a global audience, including affected communities, unprecedented access to messaging by different Court actors in different countries. Inconsistencies in messaging make it easier for would-be detractors to attack the credibility and integrity of the Court. To that end, the Registry is best placed for ensuring a consistent, coherent and neutral presentation of the ICC messaging. It is therefore advisable that the Registry takes responsibility for ensuring a coherent messaging of the ICC's work in close cooperation with the different organs of the Court and, where appropriate and feasible, with the parties. Review the Integrated Strategy on External Relations, Public Information and Outreach, spelling out a new shared vision and coordinated priorities relating to external communication for the whole Court. Ensure channels of communication within the Court and modalities to reflect the need for coordination of messaging between ICC organs. 3. A court equipped to respond to criticism While recognizing that the Court is not a political actor, the next phase of the Court s existence should be defined by a Court-wide strategic effort to set the agenda on international justice. As a new institution, the communication of basic information has been the necessary key element of the Court s first years. While this need is still very much a reality, the political context in which the Court is operating has become ever-more fraught as its judicial processes have begun to have an impact and, hence, attract more attention. The Court cannot afford to remain silent in the face of criticisms, misinformation and outright political attacks. The Registry must be equipped to meet these new challenges. It can and should engage with ongoing debates to ensure that information in the public domain is accurate and that the Court s mandate is fully 2

understood without compromising its independence and impartiality. The Registry s management structures should empower staff tasked with communication whether in headquarters or in the field to respond to emerging issues, and be proactive in anticipating potential criticisms. Strengthen the role of the ICC spokesperson as a key tool in responding to criticisms, including those of a political nature. Strengthen the role of field-based communications staff to respond to criticisms on the ground from all interlocutors, while ensuring consistency of messaging as a whole. 4. Early communication Lessons learned from the ad-hoc tribunals and the Court s first years of outreach have shown that early Court interaction and communication with populations is an accepted best practice. However, due to resource constraints and an ever expanding number of investigations, PIDS has been forced to focus its outreach efforts to situations that have cases at trial phase. Early outreach creates conditions conducive to supporting the Court s operations by ensuring the necessary cooperation for conducting investigations in the field and carrying out trials; preventing or stemming the spread of misinformation; reinforcing complementarity initiatives; facilitating participation and legal representation of victims in Court proceedings; explaining due process rights; facilitating redress for affected communities; and creating an enabling and supportive environment for field engagement and presence. Particularly during preliminary examinations and early stages of investigations, there is an information gap between what people need and want to know and what the Court has been able to provide to date. The Court can bolster its positive impact through outreach at the earliest opportunity, including in preliminary examinations, pointing to the need both for neutral information via the Registry and for targeted information from the Office of the Prosecutor in preliminary examinations. This is coupled with a need for the use of public information and outreach tools to begin immediate communication in new situation and other priority countries (e.g. preliminary examinations) in languages accessible to those populations, to maximise the Court s responsiveness and ability to manage expectations and the flow of accurate and timely information. Strengthen and undertake early outreach and public information activities in all situations, including those where field offices have not yet been opened, including ensuring sufficient linguistic ability within Court staff to engage populations in a language that is accessible and understandable. Strengthen coordination between Court organs to ensure consistent messaging and to support fuller engagement of public information during the preliminary examination phase. 5. Coordinated strategic direction Strong coordination and strategizing capabilities at headquarters are crucial. Lessons-learned and new strategic approaches should be developed and codified in updated strategies. An overarching 3

communications strategy where lessons-learned can be pooled and fed-back to field offices across different situations is essential to make outreach more effective and efficient. Monitoring and evaluation are central to the success of the Court s communication strategies. These strategies should be responsive and allow for a comprehensive feedback of the views of various audiences back to the Court, allowing for strategies to be adapted to changing needs and conditions on the ground. This is one reason why the two-way dialogue aspect of outreach is a critical element that needs to be maintained and strengthened. Ensure the capacity of headquarters to coordinate outreach and public information in all areas and locations of the Court s work, to allow for harmonious strategies, more flexibility, the possibility to conduct lessons learned exercises and centralisation of messages and tools. Strengthen mechanisms for information sharing, internal coordination, reporting lines and feedback from the field to headquarters and vice versa, including on budget, recruitment process, strategies, tools, work plans, and messages. Strengthen efforts to receive feedback from target groups and affected communities, to feed back into strategic planning at headquarters and across field offices. Strengthen the Court s capacity to target simultaneously specific groups (including the general public, academia, civil society and the media) using different tools that are accessible to specific target groups. 6. Direct communication Direct communication with audiences reinforces the Court s perceived independence, allowing it to explain its mandate and address misrepresentations and misconceptions as soon as or preferably before an investigation is opened. Although the Court makes use of its networks and partners to strengthen the dissemination of information about its mandate, certain messages and activities can only be delivered by the Court itself, so as to ensure that its messaging is accurate and balanced and in line with its own strategic opportunities and priorities. In the absence of Court outreach activities, local media and civil society would find it impossible to effectively engage affected communities on the Court s work, especially in countries where accused persons are powerful political actors with support of the government and whose access to resources is immense. Meanwhile, over-reliance on the media as a means of communication can often lead to a distortion of the Court s messaging, which can result in the expenditure of scarce outreach time and resources in clarifying and counteracting well-established misinformation and misperceptions. Direct communication and strategic coordination of local partners, including NGOs, is a vital component of outreach strategies that needs to be strengthened. In-house communications expertise in field offices is crucial to achieving this. Ensure strong field offices and field communications structures to enable the Court to engage directly with affected communities from the earliest possible stage, including identifying needs for Court Principals to deliver messages directly. 4

Ensure coordination between those responsible for outreach at headquarters and those carrying out outreach in the field, to ensure consistency of messaging also across situations. 7. Integrated communication strategies tailored to national and local contexts One of the biggest challenges for ICC outreach has been the wide range of situations in which it has to communicate with limited resources. Each situation presents its own logistical, geographical, social, cultural, political, and linguistic challenges. Integrated communication strategies for each situation country should merge outreach, public information and external relations activities.these should be tailored toward specific national and local audiences (including victims, affected communities, legal communities, academia, civil society, government and policy makers, general public and the media). These should harness local knowledge and expertise. Outreach staff in the field should take the lead in assessing information needs and reporting these back to headquarters, also as a means to review strategies to reflect the needs and realities in each situation country. Strengthen the strategic planning process on a situation-by-situation basis, including expanding strategies to address all communications needs in coordination with the different organs of the Court. 8. Integrated communication strategies tailored to regional contexts The Public Information Strategy 2011-13 provides important guidance on the Registry s communication priorities with global audiences and should be maintained and updated, also in consultation with other Court organs. This should be complemented by integrated communication strategies for each region, merging outreach, public information and external relations activities. These strategies should be tailored for regional considerations and identify specific regional target groups, including in particular intergovernmental bodies. Adopting a regional approach, in addition to national approaches, would be highly beneficial in identifying and avoiding impending information crises. Develop comprehensive strategies targeting zones where the Court can identify a lack of awareness and of trust, such as Africa and the Arab world, that includes public information crisis management plans. 9. Strategy, not resource, driven activities Zero-growth in the Court s budget has resulted in an over-stretch in the limited resources available for PIDS. PIDS has had to shuffle resources both human and material available for outreach around to meet the increasing demand. Resources should be allocated to allow the full implementation of strategies and meet information demands. A voluntary funding approach runs counter to lessons learned from previous international tribunals and courts and would undermine the effective implementation of these activities. Maintain outreach and public information as separate components in the ICC budget, allowing for identification of needs, management of resources and early engagement with ICC States 5

Parties on the importance of these resources, including through the engagement of field-based communications staff. 10. Mainstreaming of digital communications While the Court has taken steps to improve its online capabilities over the past years, a comprehensive digital communications strategy is now needed to take advantage of the potential to reach vast audiences across the globe. This goes beyond having a social media presence. The strategy must envisage the development of content tailored to the different audiences using these platforms. It should also ensure a mainstreaming of digital communications throughout the Registry. These activities cannot be undertaken in isolation. Further, a strengthened online presence should be used not only to broadcast what the Court has to say but also be used as a listening tool, and to deepen the two-way conversation with people interested in and affected by the work of the Court. While new media tools are a cost effective means of reaching and targeting wide ranging audiences, they also require resources, staffing and expertise if they are to be used effectively. Any such strategy should complement existing work practices, such as outreach to the media, rather than replacing them. Ensure the inclusion of social media in national, regional and global outreach and public information strategies, tailored for specific target groups, in addition to traditional media. 11. Moving beyond communicating about proceedings Steps should be taken to develop communications materials, strategies and activities that are not linked to judicial developments, but to the wider mandate of the ICC to promote justice and peace. This may involve merging outreach, public information and external relations activities. Terminology and language used to describe the Court and its work should be reconsidered as part of this approach. Communication activities should move beyond being linked to key moments and stages of the proceedings, and should become a sustainable programme mainstreamed in all ICC activities and governed developed in consultation with different Court s organs. Ensure consistent messaging across Court organs, and among field offices, about the overall mandate of the Court to promote peace and justice and its role in relation to other actors in this area. 12. Legacy In the development of Court-wide completion strategies, real attention needs to be given to the fact that the Court will eventually conclude its activities in each of its situations. Strategies should therefore include this message and ensure there are strong communications efforts as Court activities in a given situation are drawn down, particularly if the Court s activities have not yet concluded (for example if no arrest warrants have been executed). This should include comprehensive plans for maintaining a presence and legacy in strengthening respect for the rule of law and human rights at the national level, encouraging further domestic prosecutions and deterring future crimes. This can help strengthen the 6

Court s legacy and avoid feelings of abandonment among affected populations as the Court s presence reduces. Ensure public information and outreach strategies address legacy and completion issues from the commencement of communications activities, including when the Court will consider its work done and its plans in the event of hibernation of the Court s presence in the field. 13. Communications with victims Conducting outreach and communicating with victims and affected communities are crucial to ensuring that they are fully informed regarding developments in Court cases and their rights to participate in proceedings, as well as managing expectations. Both PIDS and the Victims Participation and Reparations Section (VPRS) play an important role in this regard. With victims at the center of the Court s work, it is important that whichever structure is adopted within the Revision process, those dealing with these issues develop strategies to ensure that communications with victims and affected communities are consistent and well-coordinated. Particular attention should be given to communications that could affect victims participation in Court proceedings. As such, future strategies should include victims legal representatives when appropriate. Clarify how any new structure will address outreach and communications with victims and affected communities, and ensure coordination to maintain a consistent approach and messaging. Ensure that any communications or outreach activities with victims and affected communities are coordinated with the appropriate bodies, including legal representatives for victims. 14. Improving the ICC website The Court s website is the primary means for the public to obtain information about the ICC s work, including ongoing proceedings and case law. However, the Court s website, while recently improved, remains inadequate. Communications strategies should take this into account and incorporate improvements to the website. It is understood the website has been undergoing further revision, which is welcomed and the team looks forward to seeing the results of this process. Ensure easy and adequate access to the ICC case-law (including with user-friendly research tools). Improve the content and scope of information presenting the status of situations and cases before the Court. 7