The Union Patriotique des Congolais, was established in the DRC in 2000 and appointed Lubanga as its chairman. Lubanga was also the commander in chief of the armed wing of the UPC, the Front Patriotique pour la Libération du Congo. This armed group was well known for its use of young children to participate in the hostilities, from fighting, to cooking, cleaning, spying, and being used as sexual slaves. Lubanga was convicted by Trial Chamber I in the International Criminal Court’s first verdict for the war crime of conscripting, enlisting or using children under the age of 15 to actively participate in hostilities.
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ACTUS REUS: “[The] Appeals Chamber notes that, in so concluding, the Trial Chamber chose an objective criterion to distinguish commission liability from accessorial liability, as opposed to, for instance, a distinction based on the accused person’s mental relationship to the crime in question. In the view of the Appeals Chamber, it is indeed appropriate to distinguish between liability as a perpetrator and as an accessory primarily based on the objective criterion of the accused person’s extent of contribution to the crime” (¶ 468).