On Friday, March 17, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of war crimes. More specifically, the ICC cited that he is allegedly responsible for deporting children from the occupied territories of Ukraine into Russia.
“It is forbidden by international law for occupied powers to transfer civilians from the territory they live in to other territories,” ICC President Judge Piotr Hofmański expressed in a video statement. “Children enjoy special protection under the Geneva Convention.”
The ICC also put out an arrest warrant for Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights in Russia Maria Lvova-Belova for the same crimes.
“It is great that the international community has appreciated the work to help the children of our country, that we do not leave them in war zones, that we take them out, we create good conditions for them, that we surround them with loving, caring people,” she said in response to these warrants.
Meanwhile, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy celebrated this news, highlighting that it is a “historic decision from which historic responsibility will begin.”
The ICC is an international tribunal that investigates and tries those accused of crimes against the international community, such as war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression. It seeks to create world accountability and prevent these heinous violations from happening again.
As of 2022, 123 countries are members of the ICC Assembly of State Parties, but this does not include Russia and Ukraine, according to the organization’s website. However, the Associated Press reported that Ukraine gave the ICC jurisdiction over its territory to investigate Russia’s alleged crimes.
The intergovernmental body has no police or military force to carry out its warrants. It instead relies on the cooperation and aid of nations to make arrests and turn detainees over to the ICC detention center, located in The Hague, Netherlands. As a result, Putin and Lvova-Belova are unlikely to face trial—especially as Russia does not recognize ICC jurisdiction.
“Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and doesn’t bear obligations under it,” Russia’s Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova said. “Russia doesn’t cooperate with this body, and possible recipes for arrest coming out of the International Court of Justice will be legally worthless and void for us.”
This marks the first time in history that the ICC issued an arrest warrant for a head of state of one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Although this is a monumental step for the international community, the violent Russia-Ukraine war continues with no end in sight.
