An impartial ICC needed to charge Putin
Barrister Solaiman Tushar :
On 17 March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Mr. Putin, accusing him of war crimes in Ukraine and of illegally transporting children from Ukraine to Russia. On the other hand, the Russian Investigative Committee filed a criminal case against the judges and prosecutors of the ICC who issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Putin on charges of war crimes. This was reported by Russia’s top investigative agency on 20 March 2023. ICC Judges Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala, Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez, and prosecutor Karim Khan have been charged in this case in Russia.
The Russian Investigative Committee says there is no basis for criminal liability on Putin’s part. This is because Heads of State enjoy full immunity under the 1973 UN Convention. Since its establishment in 2002, ICC judges and lawyers have not faced such danger.
Presently, one of the most talked about news in the world is the war in Ukraine and the issuance of an arrest warrant by the ICC against Russian President Vladimir Putin. About 13 months ago, the government led by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported child trafficking to the International Criminal Court. The court says that this crime has been happening since the beginning of Russia’s operation in Ukraine on February 24. An arrest warrant has also been issued against Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights of the Russian Presidential Office, on the same charges. Russia has already denied the allegations and called the arrest warrants “heinous”. Now the question is whether the ICC has the ability or jurisdiction to arrest or prosecute President Putin.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine is a member of the ICC, although Ukraine has granted the ICC jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed on its territory. As a result, arresting or prosecuting the Russian leader is not easy for the ICC. The UN Security Council may ask the ICC to investigate the allegations. But that too is not possible as Russia again has veto power. And the ICC conducts proceedings only in its member countries. But Russia is not a member of ICC. So there is no chance that Putin or Maria Belova will appear before the ICC. Besides, the ICC does not have the power to arrest the accused. ICC has no police or security personnel. The ICC has to rely on the cooperation of member state governments to arrest someone. Besides, there is no hearing in the international court without the presence of the accused. So this is another hurdle in bringing Putin to justice. President Putin can be arrested and extradited to the ICC only if he travels to enemy countries.
Previously, on 10 September 2018, US President Donald Trump’s security Adviser John Bolton, in a speech, referred to the ICC as a dead and illegitimate court and threatened to impose sanctions against the ICC if it tried to prosecute US soldiers for crimes against humanity in Afghanistan. After former ICC chief lawyer Fatou Bensouda called for a full investigation into possible war crimes in Afghanistan in the presence of the US military, President Donald Trump’s security Adviser John Bolton threatened that ICC Judges would try to prosecute American citizens if they tried to prosecute suspected US soldiers in the war-torn country.
Since the formation of the ICC in 2002, the court has completed a handful of trials. And all these are criminals of poor and weak States. The ICC could not initiate the prosecution of any criminals of powerful States. At the tip of the ICC’s nose, the Western countries led by the US are involved in genocide and war crimes in some countries of the Middle East, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Libya, and Syria. Despite the clear evidence of war crimes and genocide in Iraq, the ICC did not take the initiative to prosecute former US President Mr. George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and British soldiers. Britain’s own Chilcot Committee inquiry report mentioned that Mr. Tony Blair misled Britain about the presence of weapons of mass destruction. As a result, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was ousted by attacking Iraq. Thousands of innocent Iraqi people were killed. Although Britain is a member state of the ICC, the former Prime Minister of Britain and British soldiers have not been brought to justice. Britain signed the Treaty of Rome on 30 November 1998. The role of the ICC is questionable despite decades of genocide by Western countries led by America in Afghanistan. Although Israel has committed genocide and war crimes in Palestine for ages, the ICC has no significant role. Just because it is not a member state of the ICC, the ICC cannot prosecute the army and political leaders of Myanmar involved in the genocide of millions of Rohingya Muslims. ICC has been conducting an investigation only for trying to deport Rohingyas to Bangladesh.
The impartiality of the ICC, as an enforcer of standards of international justice, had been called into question long before it laid charges against Putin. Critics and Researchers have suggested that the ICC is both structurally and materially biased in favour of the West and instrumentalised by the United Nations Security Council in a continuous attempt to reinforce the existing global imbalance of power. The bigger question is why the Russian leader Mr. Putin faces charges when so many war criminals among Western political leaders remain free.
(The writer is a member of the Honorable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, and Dhaka Bar Association and a researcher on international law).
