V. Recommendations

Transparency

There are undoubtedly limits to the amount of detail that may be disclosed about the factors that led to the Special Court’s request to conduct Taylor’s trial in The Hague. However, Human Rights Watch strongly believes that it is important for the Special Court to share as much information as possible on the basis for moving the trial. This will help to ensure that the communities most affected by the crimes and others have some understanding as to why this development was necessary. This will help to minimize frustration, misunderstanding and other negative ramifications due to the change in location.

Following the request for the change in location, Special Court staff held meetings in Freetown with representatives of Sierra Leonean civil society organizations and responded to inquiries by West African journalists as to the reasons for requesting to move Taylor’s trial outside Sierra Leone. More limited information concerning the reasons the Special Court requested moving the trial is available on the court’s website and through audio summaries produced by the Special Court. We have been told that plans are also underway to prepare materials for wider dissemination in Sierra Leone.²⁶  

We welcome steps to inform the public about these developments. We urge the Special Court to intensify these steps and take a pro-active, high-profile approach to sharing information as to why it seeks to hold Taylor’s trial in The Hague. As a matter of priority, we urge that as much information as possible be:

Accessibility

The location of Taylor’s trial in The Hague significantly intensifies the need for sustained and robust outreach and communications activities. These activities must provide relevant information and some form of access to the Sierra Leonean public to the proceedings.

The priority the court has given throughout its life to outreach and communications is particularly commendable. These represent one of the most difficult areas for any international justice institution. Restrictions on funding for outreach from the court’s core budget by the Special Court Management Committee also created challenges.²⁷ 

To ensure accessibility of Taylor’s trial, the Special Court must maintain its prioritization of outreach and communications in its initiatives around Taylor’s trial in The Hague. The Outreach and Public Affairs Units in the Registry should continue and adapt the range of activities it currently implements to meet the challenge of making a trial in The Hague accessible to the people of Sierra Leone and West Africa.

We understand that discussions within the Special Court on efforts to ensure the accessibility of Taylor’s trial are ongoing. Some initiatives that are being explored are streaming video of the proceedings in The Hague to the Special Court premises in Freetown; preparing video and audio summaries of court proceedings; and facilitating observation of the proceedings in The Hague by several West African journalists. Court staff are also considering how a previously begun initiative to establish an independent radio station focused on justice and human rights issues could be leveraged to promote the accessibility of Taylor’s trial with Sierra Leoneans.²⁸

Human Rights Watch sees a number of the components currently under discussion as important to ensuring the accessibility of Taylor’s trial. We believe it will be crucial that court staff develop and implement – and donors fund – the following outreach and communications efforts in relation to Taylor’s trial:

The fact that the seat of the Special Court remains in Freetown regardless of where Taylor’s trial is conducted will contribute to facilitating efforts to ensure the accessibility of proceedings. A number of the creative methods utilized by court staff to date can continue to inform the people of Sierra Leone about Taylor’s trial. These include hand delivering press releases to journalists, convening meetings with Sierra Leonean civil society, and traveling around the country to screen video summaries.

To the Netherlands as the host state:

o Facilitating efforts by the Special Court to make the proceedings accessible to the people of Sierra Leone and West Africa by assisting in ensuring access for West African journalists, monitors, civil society, and other sectors in Sierra Leone, including through the provision of visas; 

o Facilitating transport of witnesses; and

o Overcoming other logistical and technical challenges of holding the trial in The Hague, including the court obtaining appropriate office space.

We welcome the willingness of the Netherlands to respond favorably to the request made by the Special Court president on the basis of security concerns to host Taylor’s trial. We hope that the Netherlands will now take the necessary steps to ensure that this trial is accessible to the communities most affected by the crimes in Sierra Leone.

To Donors (including the United States, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Canada, and the United Nations):

o Cover all expenses entailed by the trial, including travel of Special Court staff and witnesses to The Hague, office space in The Hague, etc.; and

o Conduct effective outreach and communications activities to make Taylor’s trial accessible to the communities most affected by the crimes;