ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan signals unwillingness to indict perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan signals unwillingness to indict perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity

    8:44 AM   No comments

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, who acted in record time to indict Russian president Putin at the urging of Western governments, is willfully blind to war crimes and crimes against humanity, the two main crimes the ICC was created to adjudicate, that are happening in Gaza.

After visiting the region, he stated that there “credible allegations of crimes during the current conflict should be the subject of timely, independent examination and investigation.”

Khan also expressed “profound concern” at what he called “the significant increase in incidents of attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank,” saying that “no Israeli armed with an extreme ideology and a gun can feel they can act with impunity against Palestinian civilians.”

Hinting at what will be his strategy of and justification for the delay in the Court’s action, Khan said that the standard would be to gather “objective, verifiable evidence which can stand scrutiny in the courtroom and ensure that when we do proceed we have a realistic prospect of conviction.”

This suggests that, unlike his quick action on events related to the war in Ukraine that is still going on, the ICC is likely to sit on its hands until more children and women, 70% of the civilians killed in Gaza thus far, are killed and until the war stops, which may be months or years.

Expressing concern about its inaction, the head of the Palestinian authority in West Bank, which unlike Israel, ratified the ICC treaty, told Khan that the credibility of the ICC will be determined by its action or inaction related to the war in Gaza.

Expressing growing global concern, the State of Qatar, which has been deeply involved in reaching a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, is now calling for an immediate, comprehensive and impartial international investigation into the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip.

 

Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani renewed his country's strong condemnation of the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces.

 

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman said that Qatar has made great efforts in mediation to stop this war of revenge, and will continue its efforts with all active countries to resume the truce and reach a permanent ceasefire.

 

 

ICC Lawyer, Gilles Duver: It's not just Israel's military aggression, it's not just war crimes or crimes against humanity, it's actual genocide

ICC Lawyer, Gilles Duver: It's not just Israel's military aggression, it's not just war crimes or crimes against humanity, it's actual genocide

    4:57 AM   No comments

Vladimir Putin was indicted for allegedly transferring some children, alive, from a war zone to Russia. The ICC acted. Thousands of children were killed, premature babies were deprived of medical support, and thousands more were traumatized and forced to leave their homes only to see death and destruction on their way to a place that was said to be safe, only to be bombed again. ICC does not see that "there are reasonable grounds to believe that" war crimes are happening in happening in Gaza, a place described by the New York Times as a "Graveyard for Children".

Here is the text of the ICC indictment of Putin:

Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, born on 7 October 1952, President of the Russian Federation, is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute). The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, (i) for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute), and (ii) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control, pursuant to superior responsibility (article 28(b) of the Rome Statute).

 

Here is a summary of the opinion of an ICC lawyer, Gilles Duver, who, along with more than 400 lawyers, is trying to get the attention of the ICC to indict:

 

French lawyer and international law expert Gilles Duver said that the precise definition of genocide was fully met in the military aggression launched by Israel against the Gaza Strip, whether it was related to the siege, lack of food, and fuel prevention, or was related to genocide through bombing and displacement.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, the French lawyer indicated that he is leading an initiative that includes 300 to 400 lawyers from all over the world to file a lawsuit before the International Criminal Court in The Hague demanding the opening of an investigation into the incidents attributed to the Israeli occupation army in the Gaza Strip since October 7. First past.

 

Duffer (a lawyer accredited to the International Criminal Court) explained that this initiative comes from civil society, and “after we saw what is happening, we understand that it is not only about military aggression, it is not just war crimes or crimes against humanity, but rather it is genocide.” Realism without a theoretical or philosophical choice. We see that the precise definition of genocide is fulfilled in the international convention and in judicial and reference precedents, as in the cases of Srebrenica and the Rohingya.”

 

The disappointing legacy of the ICC

The disappointing legacy of the ICC

    7:46 AM   No comments

Since it came online, the ICC built a record of focusing on crimes committed in the Global South and ignoring those committed by leaders of the West. The evidence was so damning that Many African leaders called for mass exit from the first permanent international criminal court that promised more in terms of holding abusers of human rights to account. Since the statute that powered the court came to force in 2002, prosecutors of the ICC have been eager to indict anyone the West does not like and ignore crimes committed by Western leaders or friends of Western leaders. For example, despite the damning evidence of torture, murder, and unlawful detention of persons since the illegal Western invasion of Iraq in 2003, the ICC did not take any measurable outcome action against the perpetrators of the war crimes, crimes against humanity, and war of aggression—the very crimes that fall under its jurisdiction. Yet, before the war in Ukraine closed its first year, the ICC gathered enough evidence to indict a sitting president. 

This article sheds some light about the corrupting power of money, political interference, and ideological biases that have infected the once promising institution on which many human rights activists pinned much hope.