What is the ICC and what are its powers? : NPR

The Worldwide Felony Courtroom has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity within the Gaza Strip. Warrants have additionally been issued for Yoav Gallant, Israel’s former protection minister, and Muhammad Deif, Hamas’ army chief, whom Israel says it killed in August.

ICC chief prosecutor Karim Kahn requested the arrest warrants in Might.

Israel is contesting the allegations in opposition to Netanyahu and Gallant, which embrace “the warfare crime of hunger as a technique of warfare; and the crimes in opposition to humanity of homicide, persecution, and different inhumane acts.”

On Thursday, President Joe Biden launched an announcement on the warrants issued by the Worldwide Felony Courtroom. “The ICC issuance of arrest warrants in opposition to Israeli leaders is outrageous. Let me be clear as soon as once more: regardless of the ICC would possibly suggest, there isn’t any equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas, he mentioned. “We’ll all the time stand with Israel in opposition to threats to its safety.”

Here’s what the warrants imply and what might occur subsequent.

What’s the ICC?

Situated in The Hague, Netherlands, the ICC was established July 17, 1998, below the Rome Statute, a world treaty, and got here into pressure in July 2002.

The creation of the ICC grew out of the necessity for a everlasting worldwide court docket to deal with crimes throughout acts of warfare, in line with the court docket. It goals to assist “finish impunity for the perpetrators of probably the most severe crimes of concern to the worldwide group.”

Thirty-two circumstances have gone earlier than the court docket, which consists of 18 judges which can be every from a special nation, are elected by the member states and serve 9-year, nonrenewable phrases.

Its judges have issued 59 arrest warrants, together with these for Netanyahu, Gallant and Deif, the ICC says.

In March 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged warfare crimes in his warfare in opposition to Ukraine. Arrest warrants had been additionally issued for then-Libyan chief Moammar Gadhafi alongside along with his son Seif al-Islam Gadhafi and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanoussi in 2011.

Twenty-one individuals have appeared earlier than the ICC and had been held at its detention middle. ICC judges have delivered 11 convictions and 4 acquittals, in line with the court docket. Fees in opposition to seven individuals have dropped due to their deaths and 30 individuals are at-large, the ICC says.

The court docket focuses on 4 sorts of crimes

The court docket has worldwide jurisdiction over 4 sorts of crimes: crimes in opposition to humanity, genocide, crimes of aggression and warfare crimes.

The court docket doesn’t have its personal policing physique and depends on different nations for assist in “making arrests, transferring arrested individuals to the ICC detention centre in The Hague, freezing suspects’ belongings, and imposing sentences,” the ICC notes.

Below the Rome Statue, ICC member states are obligated to arrest an individual who’s of their territory and topic to an arrest warrant.

The ICC has 124 state events, together with 33 from Africa, 19 from Japanese Europe and 25 from Western Europe and others resembling Canada. The USA shouldn’t be a state occasion and neither is Israel.

Russia and Ukraine are additionally not members of the ICC, and Putin has not been arrested.

What occurs subsequent? Will Netanyahu be arrested?

The ICC arrest warrants are a major transfer by the worldwide court docket in in search of the arrest of a world chief.

“They ship a really robust sign in opposition to impunity and a really robust sign to all sides to adjust to worldwide humanitarian legislation, worldwide legal legislation and to, above all, shield the rights and security of civilians,” David Scheffer, former ambassador-at-large for warfare crimes points in the course of the Clinton administration and a senior fellow on the Council on Overseas Relations, beforehand advised NPR.

Now that arrest warrants have been issued, it’s as much as the ICC’s state events to implement the warrants, make the arrests if Netanyahu or others come to their nation, and switch them to the ICC for detention.

Netanyahu and Gallant might “journey to a complete host of Center East nations with out concern of arrest as a result of they are not occasion to the Rome Statute,” Scheffer mentioned.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as an example, usually are not members of the ICC.

“Solely Jordan is inside their neighborhood. And they also have that flexibility nonetheless to maneuver diplomatically,” Scheffer mentioned in regards to the Israeli politicians.

If Netanyahu and others don’t seem earlier than the ICC or usually are not arrested, the court docket says “authorized submissions could be made, however hearings can not start.”

Whereas it’s unlikely that Netanyahu and Gallant would flip themselves in or be arrested, if both occasion had been to happen, they might undergo the court docket’s authorized course of and doubtlessly be sentenced.