DISINFO: ICC is a pathetic and powerless organisation
SUMMARY
It is clear that there is no practical use for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin. But it will have disastrous consequences for international law. It means the collapse of the foundations and principles of law, including the postulate of the inevitability of punishment. No one will now turn to international institutions. Everyone will make agreements among themselves. All the stupid decisions of the UN and other organisations will fall apart. There will be a dark decline of the whole system of international relations.
RESPONSE
A new pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative following the decision communicated on 17 March 2023 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue a warrant against Vladimir Putin for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population from Ukraine to Russia during the war in Ukraine. The narrative tries to paint the ICC’s decision as a threat to international law and claims that the institution is powerless.
As a result of the ICC's decision, 123 member states are obliged to detain and transfer Putin if he sets foot on their territory, significantly limiting his ability to travel abroad. Diplomatic immunity would not protect him against this.
Putin is just the third head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court while still in power. Although the ruling will not mean a prison sentence for Putin in the short term, it will restrict his movement internationally to countries that are not party to the ICC.
The ICC, the world's permanent war crimes court was created by the Rome Statute, a treaty ratified by all the EU states, as well as Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland, 33 African countries and 19 nations in the South Pacific. Russia is not a member and neither are China, the United States or India.
Russia signed the Rome Statute in 2000, but withdrew its backing in 2016, after the ICC classified Moscow's annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula as an armed conflict.
Several states, including Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and Ukraine, announced in March and April 2022 that they would conduct investigations of war crimes in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine under the universal jurisdiction principle of international humanitarian law.
Read more about the EU's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine along with EU vs Disinfo's Guide to Deciphering Pro-Kremlin disinformation around Putin's War.
See more cases on the ICC arrest warrant on Putin here.