How much power does the ICC have to enforce arrest warrants?
The International Criminal Court's remit of power is limited and strongly depends on the cooperation of member states, legal experts told Euronews.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/04/15/how-much-power-does-the-icc-have-to-enforce-arrest-warrants
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The International Criminal Court's remit of power is limited and strongly depends on the cooperation of member states, legal experts told Euronews.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/04/15/how-much-power-does-the-icc-have-to-enforce-arrest-warrants
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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00:00How much power does the ICC have to enforce arrest warrants?
00:09What do Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu have in common?
00:13Well, they are both serving heads of state subject to arrest warrants from the International
00:18Criminal Court.
00:20In theory, ICC arrest warrants are legally binding on states that have ratified the Rome
00:25Statute.
00:26In practice, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was able to travel to Hungary in
00:31early April.
00:32He was not arrested despite Hungary being a current member of the ICC.
00:37So what is the ICC's remit of power?
00:40For the ICC to succeed, it needs the support of governments because its powers are limited.
00:45The power it has is for judges to take decisions.
00:49But those decisions need to be enforced by the governments that belong to the ICC and
00:55set this court up to do exactly what it's doing.
00:58For some critics, the fact that ICC arrest warrants can be flouted renders them worthless.
01:03However, legal experts told Euroverify that they can still act as a pressure mechanism.
01:09Since an ICC arrest warrant was placed on Putin, he has avoided travelling to ICC signatories,
01:14with the exception of Mongolia, which did not execute the warrant.
01:18Despite this legal failure by Mongolia, the response offered by the ICC has been qualified
01:23as weak.
01:24They could suspend Mongolia's, you know, voting rights within that body, suspend its ability
01:31to nominate candidates to the ICC bench, they have a Mongolian judge.
01:36But so far, actually, this body of ICC members has been really reluctant, I'm sorry to say,
01:43to take measures.
01:44Really it doesn't go beyond just saying, okay, we've seen the decision from the judges and,
01:48you know, we note that there hasn't been compliance.