Executive Summary
Outreach activities target communities affected by crimes in situations and cases heard before the ICC. The programme aims to cultivate a level of awareness and understanding of the Court's mandate and activities, promote access to and understanding of judicial proceedings, and foster realistic expectations about the Court's work. This in turn will engender greater local community participation by addressing their concerns and countering misperceptions.
Over the period under consideration (from 1 October, 2008 to 1 October, 2009), a total of 365 interactive sessions were organised by field Outreach teams in situation related countries targeting directly 39,665 people1. Estimated audiences of nearly 34 million people were regularly exposed to information about the ICC through local radio and television stations2.
During this reporting period the Court consolidated the Outreach Programme in ICC situation-related countries, becoming better known and more relevant for the groups engaged. This has been demonstrated in responses to ICC surveys provided voluntarily by participants attending interactive sessions; an evolution of questions asked about the ICC; an increased number of local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) taking a proactive approach and voluntarily organising ICC-related Outreach activities and an increased number of schools and universities interested in holding ICC informative sessions for students. According to a survey conducted in three situation-related countries, field Outreach teams were cited as the main source of information for local journalists reporting on the ICC; and lastly, there has been an increased demand for radio and television programmes produced by the Court, by local and regional media.
Overall, the Outreach Unit has developed and standardised methodologies, approaches, tailored publications, and communications tools in some of the relevant languages. In this context, a major success has been the testing period of an in-house capacity to produce television and radio programmes. With a small, temporarily recruited, audiovisual team consisting of one producer and one technician, the production includes the following programmes: 'ICC at a Glance' with summaries of the Court's proceedings in all cases; 'News from the Court' presenting other events happening at the Court; and 'Ask the Court' a series in which senior ICC officials answer questions asked by participants during Outreach activities and events held in the field. During the reporting period a total of 222 programmes were produced and used to introduce discussions during interactive Outreach sessions. They were also broadcast by local radio and television stations, published on YouTube (with over 30,000 hits), and disseminated on-line through several NGO sites. In addition, as part of the effort to prepare a manual for Outreach, the Unit developed some guidelines for speakers to address key issues on defence and elements of a fair trial, and a second set of guidelines on sexual gender-based crimes. The use of an internet-based Short Message Services (SMS) system to provide quick answers to questions asked by the interested populace and to improve its timely communication with journalists was launched in one situation country.
