(October 29, 2024)
Delays in the Palestine investigation trace back to 2015 when former ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda initiated a preliminary examination. Although the investigation met the necessary criteria in 2019, it was postponed due to jurisdiction debates over Palestinian territories. The formal investigation began in March 2021, yet no meaningful progress has been made, further delaying requests against Netanyahu and Gallant.
On March 17, 2023, it took the judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) just 23 days to confirm the arrest warrants requested by ICC prosecutor Karim Khan against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his children‘s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova. But more than five months after being filed on May 20, ICC magistrates are still deliberating on the arrest warrants requested by the same prosecutor for crimes committed in Israel and Gaza since October 7, 2023.
(21 October 2024 )
The judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) adopted an amendment to regulations 52 and 53 of the Regulations of the Court, which enters into force today. The amendments concern the presentation of the document containing the charges and the decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber to confirm or decline charges.
Regulations 52 and 53 of the Regulations of the Court, as amended, provide clear direction on how the charges need to be presented by the Office of the Prosecutor and in the decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber. The confirmation of charges decision is a pivotal document for the conduct of the trial and defines its scope. By harmonising the presentation of key pre-trial and trial documents, the judges enhance the efficiency and transparency of the confirmation of charges procedure and ensuing trial proceedings.
(October 25, 2024)
The ruling did not elaborate or disclose further details, saying that “the personal medical situation of Judge Motoc is entitled to medical confidentiality.”
Motoc was replaced by Beti Hohler, a Slovenian who was elected as a judge at the court last year after earlier serving as a trial lawyer in the court‘s prosecution office.
The decision is likely to further delay a decision on the request by the court‘s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.
(October 17, 2024)
„In line with standard practice, the office will take relevant action if sufficient information is received confirming his death,“ Khan‘s division said of Sinwar, according toThe Associated Press.
Israeli authorities said DNA, fingerprints, and dental records confirm Sinwar‘s death.
The announcement left some international critics frustrated at the ICC‘s delay in issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, more than a year after Israel began its bombardment of Gaza.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) faces an unprecedented moment in its history, one that could shape its legacy and impact the lives of thousands.
Prosecutor Karim Khan and his team have risen to their mandate, applying for arrest warrants in the face of enormous risk and pressure.
Yet, the ICC as a whole is faltering. The delay in the judges‘ decision-making is a catastrophic failure to uphold the court‘s own mission.
In May, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan requested the court to issue warrants of arrest for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, along with three Hamas leaders. The ICC is yet to make a decision despite the mounting death toll in and destruction of Gaza amid Israel’s continuing genocidal violence.
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If Bensouda was threatened and blackmailed for merely investigating allegations of war crimes perpetrated before the current genocidal war, one can only fathom the pressures and threats, real or assumed, that Khan faced or feared.
Now that he has done his duty, it is for the three sitting judges of the pre-trial chamber to decide whether to issue the warrants or not. Whether they face the same threats as Bensouda is unknown, but they must be acutely aware that the very credibility of the ICC also hangs in the balance if warrants of arrest for Netanyahu and Gallant are not issued without further delay.
Second Vice-President
Nationality: Benin (African States)
Term: 11 March 2018 – 10 March 2027
Assumed full-time duty: 11 June 2018
Elected from: List B on 8 December 2017
Assigned to: Pre-Trial Division
Second Vice-President
Nationality: Benin (African States)
Term: 11 March 2018 – 10 March 2027
Assumed full-time duty: 11 June 2018
Elected from: List B on 8 December 2017
Assigned to: Pre-Trial Division
Justice Ministry officials expect the International Criminal Court to decide in the coming days on whether to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, but are cautiously optimistic that the court will decide against the warrants.
On this basis, the majority, composed of Judge Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou and Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, found that the Court‘s territorial jurisdiction in the Situation in Palestine extends to the territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
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Judge Péter Kovács, Presiding Judge, appended a partly dissenting opinion, in which he disagrees on the fact that Palestine qualifies as ‚[t]he State on the territory of which the conduct in question occurred‘ for the purposes of article 12(2)(a) of the Statute, and that the Court‘s territorial jurisdiction in the Situation in Palestine extends – in a quasi-automatic manner and without any restrictions – to the territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
The judges – Presiding Judge Peter Kovacs of Hungary, Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut of France and Judge Reine Alapini-Gansou of Benin – accepted the findings of Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s preliminary investigation from December of 2019 that there is a basis for investigating the matter further, and ruled that the court does have jurisdiction in the Palestinian territories, rejecting Israel‘s argument that it lacks such authority.