The International Criminal Court: Five things to know
The International Criminal Court (ICC) plays a vital role in the global pursuit of justice. It focuses on holding perpetrators of heinous crimes accountable, regardless of status.
Recently, the global tribunal, which was established to prosecute individuals for crimes like genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, issued an arrest warrant against former president Rodrigo Duterte following charges of crimes against humanity during his term as president and Davao City mayor.
From Duterte's recent arrest to Putin and Netanyahu's cases, here are five things to know about the court based in the Dutch city of The Hague.
US, Russia among big absentees
A total of 125 countries have ratified the court's founding Rome Statute, meaning they recognise its jurisdiction, but there are some conspicuous absences, notably the United States and Russia, along with China, Israel and Myanmar. It was set up in 2002 to try alleged cases of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and, since 2017, crimes of aggression, when member states are unable or unwilling to do so. The last to join on January 1, 2025, was Ukraine.
The ICC can pursue nationals of non-member states for crimes committed on the soil of a member country or a non-member that recognises its jurisdiction.
The UN Security Council can also call on the court to investigate potentially serious international crimes, as for instance in Libya and Sudan's Darfur region.
Eleven convictions
The ICC does not have its own police force, and its investigations take a long time. It has so far brought in 11 convictions, all in Africa. They include former militia leaders from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Thomas Lubanga, Germain Katanga and Bosco Ntaganda, who received the longest jail sentence of 30 years. The last conviction, on November 20, 2024, was a 10-year prison sentence for a Malian jihadist, "Al Hassan".
Failures and fugitives
The court has been weakened by a string of setbacks and spectacular acquittals.
Cases against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his vice president Ruto over post-election violence in 2007-8 collapsed in 2014 and 2016.
The four acquittals announced to date include former Democratic Republic of Congo vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba on appeal over crimes in the Central African Republic, and Ivory Coast's former president Laurent Gbagbo.
Former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir has been on the ICC's wanted list for genocide and crimes against humanity in the western province of Darfur for more than a decade. Arrested by the Sudanese army in 2019, he has still not been handed over.
The son of former Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, Seif al-Islam Kadhafi, has been wanted by the court on war crimes charges for over a decade but remains out of the court's reach.
Arrest warrants against Putin, Netanyahu
Out of 60 arrest warrants delivered since 2002 by the ICC only 21 have been executed.
In March 2023 the court announced an arrest warrant for Russian president Vladimir Putin. Putin is accused of war crimes for the alleged illegal deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
ICC member Mongolia however warmly hosted Putin in September 2024 and did not arrest him.
The court in November also issued arrest warrants for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant,
and Hamas's military chief Mohammed Deif-whose death was confirmed by Hamas in January.
Dispute with Rodrigo Duterte
Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019 after the Hague-based tribunal started probing allegations of human rights abuses committed in his war on drugs. He has since maintained that he will not cooperate with any investigation, despite earlier pronouncements that he would face the consequences.
Still, the ICC continued to pursue its investigation into the drug war. In December 2020, the ICC said there's a "reasonable basis" to believe that crimes against humanity were committed throughout Duterte's drug war from Nov. 11, 2011 to March 16, 2019. A year later, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber approved the probe.
The Supreme Court ruled that the government is still obliged to comply with the ICC investigation because the possible crimes happened while the Philippines was still a member state.
In November 2024, Duterte faced the House of Representatives quad committee for the first time for its probe into drug war killings under his administration.
During the hearing, the 79-year-old politician asked the ICC to "hurry up" as he might die before the investigation will roll out.
"I’m asking the ICC to hurry up. And if possible, they can come here and start the investigation tomorrow. This issue has been left hanging for so many years. Matagal ma’am, baka mamatay na ako ‘di na nila ako ma-imbestiga,” the 79-year-old politician said.
"I’m asking the ICC through you, magpunta na sila dito bukas, umpisahan na nila ang investigation, and if I’m found guilty, I will go to prison and rot there for all time,” he added.
He reiterated that the ICC "does not scare" him a bit, saying that they would welcome them anytime.
“Wala naman tayong taguan eh...I did it for my country, and for the young people dyan sa droga, no excuses, no apology, if I go to hell, so be it,” he said.
His tone would later shift as before he stepped off the plane on March 11, he said, "You will just have to kill me. Hindi ako papayag kung kakampi d'yan sa mga puti."
Based on the government's "Real Numbers" data, a total of 6,229 individuals were killed during anti-drug operations from July 1, 2016, to Jan. 31, 2022.
Rights groups, however, estimated that the number of deaths from the bloody anti-narcotics campaign reached as high as 27,000. (With reports from Pascale Julliard/AFP)
