The Hague, 11th June 2021

 

 

Dear Honourable Madam Prosecutor, Dear Fatou, Dear Sister,

 

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Trust Fund for Victims at the International Criminal Court, I am proud, and very sad, to bid you farewell.

 

Over the past decades, your service to international criminal law has been exemplary. As the ICC Prosecutor, as Deputy Prosecutor, as Prosecutor at the ICTR, as Attorney General in your home country: in each of these capacities, you have demonstrated, without fear or favour, that accountability for the most heinous crimes is not just an option, but a necessary and feasible imperative, to be pursued at all times and in all circumstances.

 

Your leadership has been unshakeable and indispensable to keeping the promise of the International Criminal Court as a beacon of hope to those who could not find justice at home. You only have to listen to the welcome you received on your recent trip to Darfur, your last mission as ICC Prosecutor, to know that this is true.

 

At the Trust Fund for Victims, we have deeply appreciated your incessant drive to put victims at the centre of your Office’s policies and actions. Your focus on sexual crimes on crimes against children throughout your tenure as Prosecutor, illustrates your acute awareness for whom justice and accountability must be achieved. We share this focus: the most vulnerable, are the most deserving of our efforts. And while the Board of Directors is not resident in The Hague, it is the experience of myself and my predecessors as Chair of the TFV Board, that you always found time for us, when visiting, to discuss our shared interest in delivering justice to victims, in the Court room and to their homes.

 

Dear Sister, allow me to reflect on a personal note. Your decision to participate in the high-level ceremony affording the symbolic reparation awards in the Al Mahdi case, last April in Bamako, made it a milestone event in the history of the Rome Statute, closing the cycle of justice, from prosecution to reparation.

 

We travelled together, we prayed together, we were together with the victims.

 

It was a unique experience, still reverberating throughout Mali as a powerful symbol of justice, hope and healing. And together, we have illustrated the power and meaning of African leadership and of female leadership in international justice.

 

As you leave office, we at the Trust Fund for Victims wish that you, your family and loved ones may find a well-deserved period of rest and tranquility. We wish you every success in your life in the future. Please know that we will count on your voice in calling out against injustice, and for justice to victims.

 

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

 

 

Mama Koité Doumbia,

Chair of the Board of the Directors,

Trust Fund for Victims at the International Criminal Court