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Report
Politicised circumstances': ICC issues 'contentious' arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and Deif
FRANCE 24 English
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11/21/2024
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00:00
We're going to cross now to Reading in England.
00:02
Rosa Friedman is Professor of Law, Conflict and Global Development at the University of
00:07
Reading.
00:08
Thanks for being with us here on France 24.
00:12
Yes, countries lining up to say that they respect the International Criminal Court and
00:19
its independence, but saying it's a little early to tell whether or not they would actually
00:24
honor arrest warrants.
00:27
I mean, let's be clear, these are very contentious arrest warrants.
00:32
They have been issued in very contentious and politicized circumstances, starting with
00:37
the Office of the Prosecutor publicly announcing that he was looking for these, seeking these
00:43
arrest warrants from the judges, which obviously put the trial judges under great pressure
00:49
from the public.
00:50
Whichever way they decided, they were going to be heavily scrutinized rather than this
00:53
being the kind of decision that is made independently within the court.
00:58
This announcement has been made two weeks after allegations of sexual misconduct against
01:03
the prosecutor, which again suggests some form of politicization of the process.
01:09
And it's the first time, as your correspondence said, that a democratically elected prime
01:14
minister or official, because we don't count Putin as democratically elected in terms of
01:18
free and fair elections, has had an arrest warrant issued for them.
01:22
What your correspondent did not mention when she talked about the Chilcot Inquiry in the
01:27
UK, for example, into the Iraq war, is that it happened years after the war ended.
01:32
Israel is currently investigating allegations of crimes, potential war crimes and crimes
01:37
against humanity, against specific individuals in national investigations.
01:42
But it cannot do an independent or national investigation while the war is ongoing.
01:46
So clearly there needs to be a ceasefire, the release of hostages, the end of the war
01:50
before Israel can open up that type of investigation.
01:54
And it's that issue and the issue of jurisdiction, whether or not the court can even investigate
02:00
what's going on within Israel and Gaza, given that Israel is not party to the court and
02:04
Gaza is not a state, that has meant that the 124 member states of the ICC are not yet sure
02:11
whether they would arrest one of these, Gallant or Netanyahu, if they come into their jurisdiction,
02:20
into their territory, because they're not yet sure whether or not these arrest warrants
02:23
are robust and would stand up in international law.
02:26
So clearly a rushed decision by that British head of the prosecution team at the ICC, you
02:33
say.
02:34
I'm not sure that it was rushed.
02:36
It just was done in a way that has not been done before for any of the other arrest warrants,
02:42
the many arrest warrants that have been issued.
02:44
So for example, he commissioned an independent group of academics and scholars and practitioners,
02:50
most of whom have been trained in Britain or work in Britain, to write an independent
02:54
report to support his request for arrest warrants and then published that.
03:00
He then made a very public statement flanked by two officials live on the news to say that
03:07
he was seeking these arrest warrants.
03:08
These are not the usual ways that the ICC operates.
03:12
And it obviously then garnered a great amount of international attention, which would then
03:16
place the judges under a great amount of pressure.
03:19
So whatever way they decided, there would already be grounds for appeal from one side
03:24
or the other.
03:25
And then again, the arrest warrants being issued now, very soon after the American elections,
03:31
when there's been all sorts of speculation about how President-elect Trump might or might
03:36
not engage with international organizations generally, and specifically the ICC, makes
03:40
it seem as though it's political.
03:42
And what we know about justice is that justice doesn't just have to be done.
03:46
It has to be seen to be done.
03:48
It has to be perceived as fair and just by the public.
03:52
And there are just very many questions that arise in this situation where the perception
03:57
is that perhaps this isn't fair or just.
04:02
So you allude to that inauguration in the United States coming in two months' time.
04:12
The way in which this case has been rolled out, you're worried that it could further
04:16
undermine the concept of rule of law at the international level?
04:21
Well, it's clear the United States takes a unilateralist and exceptionalist approach
04:26
to international law.
04:27
It very often encourages other countries to ratify and sign treaties while it doesn't
04:31
do so itself.
04:33
But the message coming out of the United States is now about things like sanctions on the
04:40
ICC and on its staff.
04:42
And these are really concerning.
04:44
There are obviously problems with the International Criminal Court.
04:46
And from the outset, there have been problems.
04:49
It's been alleged to be a racist court that only went after sort of African heads of state
04:53
at the beginning.
04:54
There's been all sorts of allegations about the ways in which it issues arrest warrants,
04:59
the fact that sometimes people who are under arrest warrants go into state parties and
05:04
are not arrested by those countries, even though they're under a legal obligation to
05:08
do so.
05:09
But just because there are criticisms of the court doesn't mean that we should be looking
05:12
to disband it.
05:14
These arrest warrants may well feed into, and the messaging coming out from the United
05:18
States in the last two hours from the administration in waiting that President-elect Trump has
05:23
said will be his administration, the messaging coming out is that they will use this as yet
05:28
another reason to try to either disband the court, disparage the court, or look to put
05:35
punitive sanctions on people who engage with the court.
05:38
And that is very concerning for any of us who care about international law and about
05:42
international organizations.
05:44
Rosa Friedman, I'd just like to ask you a question, in your opinion, if these arrest
05:50
warrants are not carried out by any member states in the foreseeable future, what implications
05:55
would that have, in your opinion, for the future of the ICC itself?
05:59
Well, we've seen in the past arrest warrants being issued and people not being arrested
06:06
from Sudan, for example, when they traveled through South Africa and other places.
06:11
So the implications then was simply that pressure was put onto these states to comply in future.
06:19
But we have to understand that international law is different to national law.
06:23
You can't put states in prison.
06:24
You can't send the bailiffs around.
06:26
You can't fine them.
06:28
And these will be political decisions for each member state of the ICC to determine
06:33
whether or not they will conduct an arrest should Gallant or Netanyahu arrive on their
06:39
territory.
06:40
International law really is about having political pressure and political sanctions if people
06:46
breach the law.
06:48
Now we've heard from the European Union that they will comply with the ICC.
06:52
But then, as you said earlier, individually, different states are alluding to the fact
06:58
that they may not carry out these arrest warrants.
07:00
I think that countries are waiting to see what will happen, whether or not these arrest
07:05
warrants will push Israel towards either doing its own independent investigation after the
07:11
war ends and having a ceasefire, a return of the hostages, or whether this is going
07:15
to actually push Israel further to the right and America further to the right in terms
07:20
of the continuation of the war.
07:22
So I think they're hedging their bets currently.
07:25
Rosa Friedman of the University of Reading Law, I want to thank you so much for being
07:31
with us here on France 24.
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