Joe Biden (left) along with the International Criminal Court (center) and Vladimir Putin (right). Photo: Geopolitical Economy.
By Ben Norton – Mar 29, 2023
The US government imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court, threatened to arrest judges, and passed a âHague Invasion Act.â Previously, the ICC only prosecuted Africans. But now that it wants to arrest Russian President Putin, Washington praises the court (while still refusing to join it).
Many countries in the Global South have denounced the International Criminal Court as a neocolonial institution, biased in favor of the West. Its leadership has been dominated by Europeans, and as of 2016, only Africans had been brought to trial at the court.
In a rare point of agreement, the United States has also opposed the International Criminal Court (ICC) since its inception. The US is not a member of the ICC, and Washington has even imposed sanctions on its top officials and threatened to arrest judges and prosecutors.
In fact, when the court first opened in the Netherlands in 2002, the United States passed a law known as the âHague Invasion Act,â according to which Washington threatens to send its soldiers to free anyone being tried at the ICC who is a US citizen or is deemed important to its ânational securityâ interests.
But after relentlessly attacking the ICC for its 21-year history, Washington has suddenly done a 180, and now publicly supports the ICC in its attempt to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On March 17, the ICCâs Polish president, Piotr HofmaĹski, issued an arrest warrant for Putin, over alleged atrocities committed in the proxy war in Ukraine between NATO and Russia.
The ICC arrest warrant was issued almost exactly 20 years to the day after the beginning of the US invasion of Iraq, which caused more than 1 million deaths, and which even United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said was illegal and violated the UN Charter.
Not a single US official was held responsible for the war crimes committed in Iraq. But the ICC now has its sights on Russia.
Russia is not party to the ICC. Ukraine is not a full member either.
Moscow said the âcriminal prosecution is obviously illegalâ and is a reflection of the Western-dominated courtâs âclear hostilityâ to Russia.
Despite the fact that the United States is not a member of the ICC, President Joe Biden strongly supported the courtâs arrest warrant.
In collaboration with the European Union, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is pressuring countries that are members of the ICC to comply and arrest Putin.
This is quite a reversal for Blinken, because in March 2021, when the court was investigating Israel over war crimes it committed in the occupied Palestinian territories, the top US diplomat published a furious statement denouncing the ICC.
Blinken roared:
The ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter. Israel is not a party to the ICC and has not consented to the Courtâs jurisdiction, and we have serious concerns about the ICCâs attempts to exercise its jurisdiction over Israeli personnel. The Palestinians do not qualify as a sovereign state and therefore, are not qualified to obtain membership as a state in, participate as a state in, or delegate jurisdiction to the ICC.
Like Israel and the United States, Russia is not a member of the ICC. But just two years after arguing that the court cannot investigate non-member Israel over its war crimes, Blinken is suddenly insisting that the ICC must take action against non-member Russia on behalf of non-member Ukraine.
Russia Responds to ICC Arrest Warrant Against Putin: It Is Legally Null and Void
US imposes sanctions on ICC, threatens family members of officials
Blinkenâs predecessor went so far as to impose sanctions on top ICC officials.
In 2020, when President Donald Trump was in office, the ICC opened an investigation into war crimes committed in Afghanistan by the US, NATO, and Afghan government allies.
In response, Trumpâs former CIA Director turned Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered an angry rant denouncing the court.
âWe oppose any effort by the ICC to exercise jurisdiction over U.S. personnel. We will not tolerate its inappropriate and unjust attempts to investigate or prosecute Americansâ, he declared in March.
Pompeo blasted the ICC as âan embarrassmentâ and âa so-called court which is revealing itself to be a nakedly political body.â He asserted that âwe are exposing and confronting its abuses.â
The top US diplomat even threatened the family members of top ICC officials, vowing, âWe want to identify those responsible for this partisan investigation and their family members.â
Later that September, the US State Department hit the courtâs chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and her colleagues with sanctions.
BREAKING: In shocking attack on #ICC @secpompeo threatens collective punishment against named staff of the court and their FAMILIES for court's ongoing investigation into #Afghanistan crimes that implicate US https://t.co/OsCTrC5YJs
— Sarah Leah Whitson (@sarahleah1) March 17, 2020
When the Biden administration entered office in early 2021, it removed these US sanctions on the ICC. But Washington still kept attacking and undermining the court.
US state media outlet Voice of America cited Blinken, who stressed that Washington continued âto disagree strongly with the ICCâs actions relating to the Afghanistan and Palestinian situationsâ and object to ICC âefforts to assert jurisdiction over personnel of non-States Parties such as the United States and Israel.â
That is to say, the Biden administration strongly opposed the ICCâs efforts to investigate US and NATO war crimes committed in Afghanistan and Israeli war crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territories.
But now that the ICC is going after Putin, the political class in Washington is ecstatic.
The military leadership in the Department of Defense, on the other hand, is more cautious.
The New York Times reported in early March, just a week before the ICC issued its arrest warrant for Putin: âThe Pentagon is blocking the U.S. from sharing evidence on Russian atrocities in Ukraine with the International Criminal Court, officials said. Military leaders fear setting a precedent that might pave the way for it to prosecute Americans.â
Breaking News: The Pentagon is blocking the U.S. from sharing evidence on Russian atrocities in Ukraine with the International Criminal Court, officials said. Military leaders fear setting a precedent that might pave the way for it to prosecute Americans. https://t.co/xnHCjkkZnK
— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 8, 2023
The ICCâs well documented bias against the Global South, and Africa in particular
The International Criminal Court is only 21 years old, but it has clearly demonstrated an extreme bias toward the Global South, and against Africa in particular.
The Los Angeles Times published an article in 2016 that clearly illustrated the one-sidedness: âOnly Africans have been tried at the court for the worst crimes on Earth.â
Only Africans have been tried at the court for the worst crimes on Earth https://t.co/lxy2AEejbX
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) October 24, 2016
That same year, Canadaâs state media outlet CBC reported: âInternational Criminal Court facing exodus of African nations over charges of racism.â
CBC acknowledged that ânine of the 10 cases currently under investigation by the ICC are based in Africaâ.
Burundi, Gambia, and South Africa condemned the ICC as a racist institution, vowing to withdraw from the court.
Gambiaâs information minister said the ICC âis in fact an International Caucasian Court, for the prosecution and humiliation of people of colour, especially Africansâ.
In 2016, Gambia did withdraw from the court.
South Africa left as well â although its high court later revoked the withdrawal.
In 2017, the African Union called on its members to leave the ICC.
African intellectuals have since continuously denounced the ICC as a neocolonial institution.
How colonialism's legacy continues to plague the International Criminal Court https://t.co/wuV2K1tzTG
— The Conversation Africa (@TC_Africa) July 16, 2020
Gambian ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda appeared to try to change the courtâs reputation by opening the investigations into US and NATO war crimes in Afghanistan and Israeli war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Trump administration hit back with sanctions and threats. Israelâs far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by baselessly accusing the ICC of âanti-semitism.â
But Bensoudaâs efforts â as minimal as they were â were thwarted when her nine-year term ended in 2021.
She was replaced with the ICCâs current prosecutor, a Karim Ahmad Khan, a British lawyer.
Khan is the brother of right-wing politician Imran Ahmad Khan, a former member of Parliament for the UK Conservative Party (who also happens to be a convicted pedophile).
Almost immediately after Karim Khan took over the ICC, he ended the investigations into US and NATO war crimes in Afghanistan and Israeli war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Reuters cited Afghan human rights activist Horia Mosadiq, who called Khanâs decision âan insult to thousands of other victims of crimes by Afghan government forces and U.S. and NATO forces.â
This story should be a huge scandal:
The new International Criminal Court prosecutor, @KarimKhanQC, quietly dropped the investigation into US war crimes committed in Afghanistan, supposedly "due to lack of resources"
More impunity for US war criminalshttps://t.co/KFXR7RUDOv
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) October 6, 2021
Khan claimed in 2021 that the ICC was struggling with a lack of resources and would instead focus on âthe scale and nature of crimes within the jurisdiction of the court.â
But the issuing of an arrest warrant for the president of Russia â a non member â over alleged atrocities committed in Ukraine â which is not a full member either â clearly contradicts Khanâs purported commitment to focus on âcrimes within the jurisdiction of the court.â
The Israeli media revealed that Israel, which is not a member of the ICC, had âworked hard behind the scenesâ to pressure countries that are parties to the court to elect Khan as chief prosecutor.
It keeps getting better: Now the report says Israel âworked hard behind the scenesâ to get #KarimKhan elected to #ICC pic.twitter.com/rdSF3vaK59
— Noa Landau × ×˘× ×× ××× (@noa_landau) February 12, 2021
In 2022, the Times of Israel praised Khan, noting that the ânew ICC prosecutor has not issued a single public statement nor taken any single public action regarding Israel-Palestine to date.â
The Israeli newspaper added excitingly, âMany Israeli officials believe that Bensouda would already have taken actions and maybe even have issued arrest warrants had she continued in office past her nine-year term.â
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The ICC is not a UN body â the ICJ is
Washingtonâs opposition to the International Criminal Court goes back to before it was even officially opened in 2002.
On the last day of 2000, just three weeks before his term ended, US President Bill Clinton signed the Rome Statute that laid the foundations for the ICC. But his successor President George W. Bush later âunsignedâ the treaty.
The Bush administration then waged a political war against the newly created ICC.
Arch-neoconservative John Bolton, who helped lead Bushâs State Department, called the US withdrawal from the ICC âthe happiest moment of my government service.â (Bolton also threatened the family members of the chief of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, JosĂŠ Bustani, telling him, âWe know where your kids live.â)
Even the billionaire oligarch-funded lobby group Human Rights Watch, which is notorious for its pro-Western bias, warned in July 2002 that the âprinciple of universal justice is still under serious threat from Washington.â And that was before the US government passed the notorious âHague Invasion Act.â
Following Bush, Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden have refused to re-sign the Rome Statute, meaning the US is not a member of the ICC.
After Trump appointed Bolton as his national security advisor, the neoconservative hawk promised in 2018: âWe will provide no assistance to the ICC. We will not join the ICC. We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us.â
Bolton even threatened to arrest ICC judges and prosecutors, proclaiming, âWe will ban its judges and prosecutors from entering the United States, we will sanction their funds in the US financial system, and we will prosecute them in the US criminal system. We will do the same for any company or state that assists an ICC investigation of Americans.â
US threatens to arrest ICC judges if they pursue Americans for Afghan war crimes https://t.co/ljCNvPgjWV pic.twitter.com/k7Dc0Q4Ldb
— FRANCE 24 (@FRANCE24) September 10, 2018
Only 123 countries are members of the ICC. (The United Nations recognizes 193 countries on Earth, meaning less than two-thirds are parties to the ICC, and these nations represent less than half of the global population.)
Prominent countries that are not state parties include the US, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Cuba, Vietnam, Tßrkiye, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
Despite popular confusion, the ICC is not an organ of the United Nations. The court is independent from the UNâs official judicial arm, the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
While the ICC was founded in 2002, the ICJ opened in 1945. Further compounding the confusion is the fact that both are located in the Hague, in the Netherlands.
The ICJ litigates state disputes, whereas the ICC focuses on individuals.
But the ICJ has been very limited in its capabilities due to a fundamental problem with the structure of the UN: permanent members of the Security Council can use their veto to block the implementation of the courtâs decisions.
The United States has done precisely this, effectively neutering the ICJ.
In 1984, Nicaragua took the US to the Hague over its support for the Contras, far-right death squads that systematically used terrorism against civilians in an attempt to violently overthrow the Central American nationâs revolutionary Sandinista government.
In the case Nicaragua v. United States of America, the ICJ found Washington guilty of violating international law, by supporting the Contra terrorists and putting mines in Nicaraguaâs ports.
The ICJ ordered that the US pay Nicaragua reparations. But Washington refused to do so, and used its veto in the Security Council to prevent any implementation of the ruling.
Ben Norton
Benjamin Norton is the founder and editor of the independent news website Multipolarista, where he does original reporting in both English and Spanish. Benjamin has reported from numerous countries, including Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Colombia, and more. His journalistic work has been published in dozens of media outlets, and he has done interviews on Sky News, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now, El Financiero Bloomberg, Al Mayadeen teleSUR, RT, TRT World, CGTN, Press TV, HispanTV, Sin Censura, and various TV channels in Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia. Benjamin writes a regular column for Al Mayadeen (in English and Spanish). He was formerly a reporter with the investigative journalism website The Grayzone, and previously produced the political podcast and video show Moderate Rebels. His personal website is BenNorton.com, and he tweets at @BenjaminNorton.
