What’s the I.C.C.?
The I.C.C., established below a 1998 treaty, is the world’s highest legal court docket.
It has the jurisdiction to research and take a look at folks for what it describes as “the gravest crimes of concern” to the world: struggle crimes, genocide, crimes towards humanity and the crime of aggression. However the court docket cannot enforce its rulings and depends on its member states to detain people who find themselves accused of crimes.
The court docket attracts its jurisdiction from the Rome Statute, a treaty ratified by 125 countries. The statute formally commits its signatories to arrest a needed one that enters their soil, however members don’t at all times comply.
The court docket relies in The Hague, a Dutch metropolis that could be a hub for worldwide regulation and justice. The Worldwide Courtroom of Justice, which handles civil disputes between international locations and is a part of the United Nations, can also be primarily based there.
The I.C.C. can’t attempt any suspects in absentia. As a substitute, it depends on member states to implement its rulings with actions like making arrests, freezing property and surrendering suspects to The Hague, the place the I.C.C. has a detention middle.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines is presently in I.C.C. custody after being arrested in March by Filipino authorities on charges of crimes against humanity.
Which international locations will not be members of the court docket?
A few of the world’s strongest international locations, together with the USA, China, Russia, India and Israel, are not members of the court docket. They don’t honor its arrest warrants or hand their residents over for prosecution.
Hungary could be the primary European Union nation to withdraw from the court docket. Underneath the Rome Statute, Hungary’s resolution wouldn’t take impact for a yr.
“Hungary stays below an obligation to cooperate with the I.C.C.,” Fadi El Abdallah, the court docket spokesman, mentioned in a press release on Thursday.
Burundi and the Philippines have each pulled out of court docket, in response to the I.C.C. prosecutor opening an investigation towards their leaders. The court docket has mentioned that Mr. Duterte is being prosecuted as a result of the offenses he’s accused of happened earlier than his nation’s withdrawal took impact, though his attorneys have contested that argument.
Who has the I.C.C. pursued?
The court docket says that it has issued 60 arrest warrants.
About half of these persons are “at massive,” like Mr. Netanyahu. Others are both lifeless, like Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the previous chief of Libya, or detained, like Mr. Duterte.
Israel and Gaza
In November, the court docket issued arrest warrants for the leaders of Israel and Hamas. On the Israeli aspect, the warrants have been for Mr. Netanyahu and his former protection minister, Yoav Gallant.
The court docket additionally issued a warrant for Muhammad Deif, a Hamas chief, who was later killed in an Israeli strike.
Russia
The court docket issued arrest warrants for President Vladimir V. Putin and one other Russian official in 2023. It argued that they each bore legal accountability for the kidnapping and deportation of Ukrainian kids after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It has additionally issued arrest warrants for 4 different Russian officers.
Mr. Putin made his first go to to an I.C.C. member state in September, however the nation, Mongolia, warmly welcomed him with a red carpet.
Kenya
William Ruto, the president, was charged in 2011 with crimes against humanity and different offenses tied to post-election violence in 2007 and 2008. The court docket dropped the case in 2016.
Sudan
Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who was deposed as president in 2019 after three a long time in energy, is the topic of court docket warrants in 2009 and 2010 for crimes within the western area of Darfur. He traveled to South Africa in 2015 in defiance of the I.C.C. warrant but was not arrested there.
The I.C.C. additionally charged different Sudanese officers with crimes in Darfur.
Mr. al-Bashir additionally faces charges in Sudan that relate to the coup in 1989 that pushed him to energy. If convicted, he might obtain the dying sentence or life in jail on these costs.
