African Campaign Against Impunity

[Source: Skylight Pictures, December 23, 2010]

Skylight Pictures is in the midst of a multiyear outreach campaign in Africa using The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court, focused on educating and raising awareness about the activities of the ICC. The campaign was boosted this year by the distribution of over 600 film screening kits in French and English at the ICC Review Conference in Kampala in May/June, where they engaged with delegates and human rights organizations from across the continent. The screening kits were designed in collaboration with 160 African civil society organizations that banded together to start a continent-wide Campaign Against Impunity, opposing the African Union's declaration of non-cooperation with the ICC. In addition to this wide-net approach, the campaign has also targeted three specific ICC cases (Kenya, Uganda and the DRC), where Skylight has partnered with the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) country offices to train journalists, legal practitioners and human rights workers on how to use the film in their work. They have also recruited three fantastic individual outreach forces (Apoti Makove in Kenya, Padjo Lokeka in the DRC and Jimmy Otim in Uganda), and are translating the film into seven languages for maximum reach. Working with their partners in this way, with people on the ground who are invested in the cause of pursuing justice in their own countries, for their own communities, their providing this media tool in local languages is greatly enhancing the impact of their work. In Kenya, the Swahili version of their screening kit has proven to be a key media tool for the sustained efforts of civil society in challenging impunity for the post-election violence. They are encouraged by ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo's summons last week calling for six Kenyan political figures to appear at The Hague this month, further evidence that supporting international justice any way they can is an important and fruitful mission.

Skylight Pictures' work in Africa is just one element of a larger project to increase capacity and information sharing around international justice that takes place on IJ Central. IJC was conceived in the early stages of The Reckoning campaign and has since grown into a network of over 1000 students and professionals. As well as aggregating global news on international justice and mapping a live global Twitter feed of people discussing international justice, IJC has an exclusive feature called "Ask the Prosecutor" where members can engage with Luis Moreno Ocampo, asking questions and receiving video answers from the Chief Prosecutor of the world's first permanent International Criminal Court. IJC also features video blogs from international justice events, and original media from Skylight Pictures.