War Crimes: Russia Have Withdraw its Support For ICC

Russia may have been “emboldened” to withdraw its support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) by the election of Donald Trump, an analyst has said.

Vladimir Putin signed an order to withdraw his country’s signaturefrom the court’s founding treaty on Wednesday, amid an investigation into the Ukraine conflict and calls for Russia to be prosecuted over its air strikes in Syria.

South Africa, Gambia and Burundi have also signalled they will pull out of the ICC, despite warnings from the United Nations.

Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the Centre on Conflict, Rights and Justice at SOAS, University of London, said Russia was “taking advantage of several different events” to make its move.

 “The ICC is holding an event now in the Hague, there have been three African withdrawals and on the heels of that we have the election of a US President who is not going to be supportive.

The President-elect has vowed to improve relations between the US and Russia, which have been damaged by the Ukraine conflict, Syrian civil war, mutual sanctions and near-misses between Russian and Nato military assets.

As well as repeatedly praising Mr Putin during his election campaign, Mr Trump is reportedly considering anti-ICC campaigner John Bolton for the position of Secretary of State.

The US is not a party to the ICC, while Russia and several other countries signed its founding document – the Rome Statute - in 2000 but failed to ratify it. 

The signature will now be withdrawn, formally removing the Kremlin from the body’s scrutiny.

“The International Criminal Court has not justified hopes placed upon it and did not become a truly independent and authoritative judicial body,” a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry said.

A statement claimed that Russia “consistently advocates that people guilty of grave offences must be held accountable” and took part in developing laws against genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the decision to withdraw Russia's signature had been taken “in the national interest”.

Dr Vinjamuri, who is also an associate fellow at Chatham House, said Russia was unhappy about a previous ICC investigation into its war with neighbouring Georgia and angered by a prosecutor’s report two days ago opening a new probe into Ukraine.

“It’s not likely to do much to affect the operation of the ICC because Russia has never been seen as a supporter,” she added. 

“It’s a bit of posturing and if anything it just affirms that Russia’s not really playing ball when it comes to global support for human rights and cooperation.

“This is the latest in a long line of Russian activity acting against human rights at home and abroad.”

Francois Hollande, the President of France, suggested that Russia should face war crimes charges over its bombardment of rebel-held eastern Aleppo last month.

“These are people who today are the victims of war crimes,” he told French television amid hundreds of reported civilian deaths.

“Those that commit these acts will have to face up to their responsibility, including in the ICC.”

It was the latest call parties in the conflict to be prosecuted by the ICC, after Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution to refer the Assad regime in 2014.

Both Russian and Syria have denied deliberately killing civilians or breaking international law in the Syrian civil war, saying they are targeting terrorist groups.

Wednesday’s announcement came two days after the ICC’s prosecutor issued a report on preliminary investigations into actions by Russia and other parties in the Ukraine conflict.

Two probes have been launched over alleged crimes committed during fighting between separatist rebels and government forces in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.

The Kremlin has denied persistent allegations of military intervention in the conflict and providing support to pro-Russian rebels but the ICC’s prosecutor said the situation in Crimea amounted to an “international armed conflict” between Russia and Ukraine as defined by the Rome Statute, meaning its jurisdiction applies.

A report found the conflict began in February 2014 when Russian troops were deployed “to gain control over parts of the Ukrainian territory without the consent of the Ukrainian Government”.