The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued this Friday an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin and a Russian official, accused of having kidnapped Ukrainian children after the invasion of the country. Its the first time in history that this court, based in The Hague, take this step against the president of a country that is part of the UN Security Council.
According to the statement released this Friday, Putin is “allegedly responsible for the war crime of illegal deportation of population and the illegal transfer of population from the occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation”.
This court ensures that these forced deportations of minors occurred after the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops on February 24 of last year and believes that Putin’s responsibility is both direct and indirect for not having exercised “adequate control over the civilian and military subordinates who committed the actsor permitted their commission and were under their effective authority and control”.
The court has also issued a second arrest warrant against the official María Lvova-Belova, accused of being at the center of a Russian government plan to forcibly deport thousands of Ukrainian minors and then place them in political re-education camps. In a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, the official proudly acknowledged having adopted a 15-year-old boy from the occupied Donbas region. According to a study by Yale University, Russia currently has a network of 43 political re-education camps with up to 6,000 forcibly interned minors, most of them from Donbas. Other investigations believe that the number could be much higher as the territories occupied by Moscow have increased and that even this number could rise to 6,000.
The issuance of these two orders has no short-term effects, since so Only those countries that are part of the Court are obliged to proceed with the arrest having admitted its jurisdiction, something Russia has not done. Despite this, the Ukrainian Prosecutor GeneralAndriy Kostin, has thanked the court for the arrest warrant and he recalled that all the countries that are part of the court have a duty to arrest the Russian president. “World leaders need to think twice before shaking hands or sitting down with Putin,” she declared.
The highest representative of community diplomacy, Josep Borrell, has assured that “The seriousness of the crimes and the CPI statement speak for themselves” and that this is only the “beginning of the process” for Russia and its leader to answer for the atrocities they are committing in Ukraine. “The EU appreciates supporting the work of the CPI and the investigators. There can be no impunity.”
What the International Criminal Court says
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, born October 7, 1952, President of the Russian Federation, is allegedly responsible for the war crime of illegal deportation of population (children) and illegal transfer of population (children) from the occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute). The offenses were allegedly committed in the occupied territory of Ukraine since at least February 24, 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the above-mentioned offences, (i) for having committed the acts directly , together with others and/or through others (Article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute), and (ii) for failing to exercise adequate control over the civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts,
Ms. Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, born October 25, 1984, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, is allegedly responsible for the war crime of illegal deportation of population (children) and transfer illegal transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under Articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute). The offenses were allegedly committed in the occupied territory of Ukraine since at least February 24, 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Ms. Lvova-Belova bears individual criminal responsibility for the above-mentioned offences, having committed the acts directly, together with others and/or through others (Article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute).
The Kremlin recalled this week that Russia does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. “We do not recognize this court, we do not recognize the jurisdiction of this court. This is how we deal with this matter,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov said.
The newspaper “The New York Times” published last March that the ICC planned to bring charges against Russia for kidnapping Ukrainian children and deliberately attacking the country’s civilian infrastructure.
It’s about the first international charges to be filed since the beginning of the conflict, on February 24 of last yearand occur after months of work by special teams to investigate war crimes, according to the newspaper.
The investigations allege that Russia kidnapped Ukrainian children and teenagers and sent them to Russian re-education camps, and deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure.
The Kremlin has denied the accusations of war crimes, but international and Ukrainian investigators have gathered compelling evidence of a series of atrocities since the first days of the invasion, recalls the newspaper.
But despite the fact that Ukraine has already taken action against Russia at the ICC, This court based in The Hague can only judge crimes of aggression against another country if the State responsible is one of the signatories of the treaty that promoted its creation, among which Russia is not counted.
Hague Yes, it can prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity that may have been committed in Ukraine by Russian forcesbut the court has no jurisdiction to judge the decision to invade that country, which makes it very difficult to sit Russian President Vladimir Putin on the bench.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a permanent international judicial court, established in 2002 by the Rome Statute, to try individuals accused of committing serious crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and assault.
The ICC has jurisdiction over crimes committed in States party to the Rome Statute and, in some cases, may exercise jurisdiction over crimes committed in States not party to the Statute if referred by the United Nations Security Council or if the State no part of the Statute recognizes the jurisdiction of the ICC. The ICC is based in The Hague, the Netherlands.