The CMN has been active in Colombia since 2013 where our main co-operation partner is the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia. The objective of our co-operation with the Office of the Attorney General is to strengthen its capacity to undertake investigations of core international crimes, with a particular focus on sexual and gender-based violence. The CMN has been supporting the Office with training programmes and peer-to-peer exchanges with international criminal law practitioners on a number of relevant issues. We have been providing support to enhance overall investigation processes and assisting with advice to individual prosecution units in specific cases.

The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia is developing its methodologies and tools for mapping victims of sexual and gender-based violence with the intention to select and prioritise investigation of the most relevant cases. The CMN has been providing access to its relevant methodology and tools.

Prioritising the prosecution of the most responsible persons requires a clear concept and methodology of criminal responsibility, including in-direct perpetrators who planned, co-ordinated or funded the atrocities, as well as direct perpetrators. The CMN has created a comparative chart of the modes of liability under the ICC Statute and Colombian law as well as an analysis of the applicable national forms of liability for perpetrators of international crimes. The CMN has also developed specific guidelines for practitioners on legal requirements of sexual and gender-based violence crimes supplemented with the relevant international jurisprudence.

The CMN has been engaged in Mexico since 2010 within the framework of its investigation and fact-finding tools. The purpose of CMN’s engagement has been to support national criminal justice actors in investigation and prosecution of serious human rights violations that may amount to crimes against humanity. Its activities include consultations with Mexican state institutions, public bodies, and civil society organisations. We have conducted workshops on challenges in investigation and documentation of a large number of complex human rights violations and acts that may qualify as crimes against humanity. The CMN has been co-operating with the relevant units within the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) with a view to improving data-gathering, registration, and use of databases on enforced disappearances. We have been supporting the Mexican Commission for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH) on the legal requirements and means of proof of crimes against humanity under international criminal law, and documentation methods using our investigation and documentation tools (I-DOC).

CMN’s primary focus in the Central African Republic has been on the sexual and gender-based violence crimes that were allegedly perpetrated by all armed groups that were party to the conflict between 2002 and 2013. The CMN has been working on capacity-development of investigative magistrates and police/judicial investigators of the Special Criminal Court (CPS), and the specialised Mixed Unit for Rapid Intervention and Suppression of Sexual Violence Against Women and Children (UMIRR). We have also developed a CAR Supplement to the International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict with the aim of contributing towards capacity-development of institutions and individuals working on sexual and gender-based violence in CAR.

The CMN has co-operated with a wide range of actors including court administrators, investigating judges, prosecutors, the national government, and other local partners in order to strengthen their capacity to map conflict related violence, with a particular focus on sexual and gender-based violence, as well as enhanced methodologies and policies for case selection and prioritisation. On 19 March 2018, the President of the Superior Council of Magistrates (CSM) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Benoît Lwamba Bindu, signed into force Practice Direction No. 02/PCC-PCSM/2018 for the Selection and Prioritisation of Crimes Against Peace and Security of Mankind, in Particular Sexual Violence at the Investigation Stage. The CMN provided its methodology and technical support to aid the development of this directive.