ICC (International Criminal Court)

What it is

The International Criminal Court is a permanent international criminal tribunal based in The Hague, Netherlands, with jurisdiction over genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression. It is the world's first standing international criminal court, governed by the Rome Statute, adopted July 17, 1998, and entered into force July 1, 2002. The court operates under the complementarity principle: it prosecutes only when national courts are genuinely unwilling or unable to act. Over 900 staff from approximately 100 countries work across its Hague headquarters and six country offices. Major powers including the United States, China, Russia, and India are not member states.

History

Proposals for a standing international criminal court appeared as early as 1937, and the 1948 Genocide Convention called for one, but the Cold War blocked progress for four decades. The ad hoc Yugoslavia tribunal (ICTY, 1993) and Rwanda tribunal (ICTR, 1994), both UN Security Council creations, proved the model feasible and trained a generation of international prosecutors and judges. A diplomatic conference in Rome in June-July 1998 produced the founding treaty; 60 ratifications were required before the court could open. The court became operational on July 1, 2002. Its first trial, Thomas Lubanga of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, ended with a 2012 conviction for conscripting child soldiers. By 2025, the court had completed proceedings against 31 individuals, with 10 convictions, 4 acquittals, and the remainder dismissed or returned to national jurisdictions.

Current state

As of July 2026, the ICC has 17 formal situations under investigation spanning Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America, with 32 outstanding arrest warrants. Two of the highest-profile warrants target sitting heads of state: a March 2023 warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for the alleged deportation of Ukrainian children, and a November 2024 warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza. In a landmark enforcement action, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was transferred to ICC custody in March 2025 and faces trial for crimes against humanity linked to drug-war killings, surrendered by the Marcos administration even though the Philippines formally withdrew from the court in 2019.

Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan (British, appointed 2021) was suspended in June 2026 after a UN Office of Internal Oversight Services inquiry found credible evidence of sexual misconduct; member states face a special session vote on his fate. In February 2025, the US Treasury sanctioned Khan and other ICC officials after the Trump administration condemned the Gaza warrants; the United States has not been an ICC member since the George W. Bush administration withdrew the Clinton-era signature in 2002.

Relationships

The ICC and the UN Security Council have a formal link: the council can refer situations to the court (Sudan, 2005; Libya, 2011) or defer proceedings for renewable 12-month periods. The three non-member permanent council members, Russia, China, and the United States, can veto referrals, as with Syria. The African Union has persistently criticised the court for targeting African leaders; all early ICC investigations were on the continent. In 2026, the Alliance of Sahel States completed a coordinated exit from the court: Mali (January 2026), Burkina Faso (April 2026), and Niger (June 2026) all filed withdrawal instruments, framing the court as "neo-colonial"; the Sahel withdrawals mark the first coordinated bloc exit in the court's history. Hungary withdrew in April 2025 during Netanyahu's visit to Budapest, sidestepping the arrest warrant obligation. The Almasri case illustrated a complementary problem: a Western government releasing an ICC suspect for political reasons and then facing domestic legal consequences.

What to watch

• The Assembly of States Parties vote on Prosecutor Khan's suspension and whether removal proceedings advance
• Whether any ICC member state enforces the Netanyahu arrest warrant when he travels or receives a head of state visit
• Whether further states withdraw, particularly Global South countries with active ICC situations, following the courts-vs-elected-power pattern
• The status of the Putin deportation warrant in any Russia-Ukraine settlement talks, where the warrant creates a legal obstacle to diplomatic normalisation
• Whether the Philippines under President Marcos formally rejoins the court following Sara Duterte's impeachment trial and shifting Philippine alignment with international institutions