Africa mulls legal options on ICC warrant against Putin

Africa mulls legal options on ICC warrant against Putin

Subject : International Relations

Section: International organization

Concept :

• South Africa is mulling its options over an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin should he accept an invitation to a BRICS summit in August, a South African government official said.
• A member of the ICC, South Africa would theoretically be required to arrest Putin under the warrant issued in March by the court, which accused him of the war crime of forcibly deporting children from Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine.

Details

• South Africa on Monday issued diplomatic immunity to all leaders attending the meeting and a gathering of BRICS foreign ministers in Cape Town this week.
• The international relations department said this was standard procedure, however, for all international conferences in South Africa.
• “These immunities do not override any warrant that may have been issued by any international tribunal against any attendee of the conference,” department spokesperson said.
• South Africa previously signaled its intention to withdraw from the ICC following protests about its failure to arrest Sudan’s former president Omar al-Bashir, wanted on genocide charges, when he attended an African Union summit in Johannesburg in 2015.
• The governing African National Congress decided in December that South Africa should abandon the process and try to effect changes to the ICC from within.

Concept:

The International Criminal Court (“the ICC” or “the Court”) is a permanent international court established to investigate, prosecute and try individuals accused of committing the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole, namely the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression

• On 17 July 1998, 120 States adopted the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court establishing the

• The International Criminal Court is not a substitute for national courts. According to the Rome Statute, it is the duty of every State to exercise its criminal jurisdiction over those responsible for international crimes.
• The International Criminal Court can only intervene where a State is unable or unwilling genuinely to carry out the investigation and prosecute the perpetrators.
• The ICC is an independent body whose mission is to try individuals for crimes within its jurisdiction without the need for a special mandate from the United Nations.

Composition and voting power:

• The Court’s management oversight and legislative body, the Assembly of States Parties, consists of one representative from each state party.
• Each state party has one vote and “every effort” has to be made to reach decisions by consensus. If consensus cannot be reached, decisions are made by vote.
• The Assembly is presided over by a president and two vice-presidents, who are elected by the members to three-year terms.