Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to withdraw Russia from the International Criminal Court (ICC), a day after the court published a report classifying Russian annexation of crimes as an occupation.
The ICC, which prosecutes war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, was established in 1998 and has over 100 member states. It is the world’s first permanent court mandated to bring to justice people responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Human rights groups have condemned Russia’s decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court as an alarming signal of Moscow’s “retreat” from international justice.
Russia in 2000 signed the Rome treaty which established the Hague-based court, but never ratified it, thus remained outside the ICC’s jurisdiction. This means, will not change much in practice.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said the withdrawal is based on “national interests” and argued that since Russia never ratified the creation of the court, the decree was just a formality Putin’s decree, dismissed the ICC’s accusations of an “armed conflict” in Crimea, arguing that Crimea joined Russia after a legitimate popular vote
Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014, Russia’s foreign ministry insisted in a statement that Russia wants everyone implicated in grave international crimes to face justice but expressed frustration over the court’s work in recent year
“The court has unfortunately failed to match the hopes one had and did not become a truly independent and respected body of international justice,” the ministry said, adding that in the ICC’s 14 years of work “only four verdicts” have been passed, while $1bn was spent on expenses
In a few months, Three African countries ( south Africa, Burundi, Gambia) have leaved, following complaints that ICC focused excessively on the African continent.
