2024/01/09 by Sigurd D’hondt, Juan-Pablo Pérez-León-Acevedo, Fábio Ferraz de Almeida +1 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Health Professions · #Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography #International Law and Human Rights #Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0047404523001008
openalex publication_date 2024/01/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Abstract In this article, we examine the production and assessment of evidence about spirit beliefs in the international criminal trial of Ugandan rebel commander Dominic Ongwen, submitted by the defense to show that their client committed the crimes he is accused of under duress. This duress defense was ultimately rejected by the ICC Judges, based on a binary understanding of ‘believing’ that depicts Ongwen and other LRA commanders as impostors. However, our analysis of how this evidence about Acholi spirituality is entextualized in testimony-taking and recontextualized in the Judgment reveals that this belief-binary is not exclusively the outcome of the Judges’ recontextualization efforts. In fact, the foundations are already established at entextualization stage, in the questioning by the defense. These continuities, we argue, offer a fresh perspective on the notion of text trajectory, redirecting attention to the underlying ‘grammar’ of the legal language game. (International Criminal Court, text trajectory, entextualization, recontextualization, evidence, spirit belief, Dominic Ongwen, Uganda)*