CSU C|M|LAW Professor Milena Sterio, along with Case Western Reserve University School of Law Co-Dean Michael Scharf, presented an amicus brief February 14, 2022 before the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The amicus brief deals with the application of the insanity defense in the case of The Prosecutor v. Dominic Ongwen. Professor Sterio and Dean Scharf were the lead authors of the amicus brief, which was submitted to the ICC on behalf of a small group of academics organized by the Public International Law and Policy Group (PILPG), a prominent non-governmental organization.
The defendant in the case, 45-year-old Dominic Ongwen, had been kidnapped by Joseph Koney’s Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda as an eight year old and forced to become a child soldier. Over the years, Ongwen rose through the ranks to become one of the top commanders in the insurgent group at the time of his surrender to the ICC.
“I believe if there was no stigma attached to the opioid epidemic that everyone in Northeast Ohio would realize it is present somewhere in their circle of people.”