Dealing with the Most Responsible for International Crimes: An Evaluation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Warrant of Arrest for Vladimir Putin

Abstract

YesThe aim of international criminal justice as encapsulated in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is to ensure accountability for international crimes and to close impunity gaps. To this end, the preamble of the Rome Statute declares that the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole must not go unpunished and that it is the duty of states to exercise their criminal jurisdictions over those who are most responsible for these crimes. Dealing with the most responsible for international crimes in conflict situations dates to the ad hoc tribunals of the 1990s. With the ICC however, unsuccessful attempts have been made to deal with Uhuru Kenyatta and Omar Al-Bashir former presidents of Kenya and Sudan respectively. Could the ICC’s arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin be an exception? This paper argues that while there seems to be expectations globally on the ICC to ensure accountability for international crimes committed by the most responsible in the Russo/Ukrainian war, the primary responsibility rests on states. It is proposed that unless the complementarity and cooperation pillars of the ICC are fully activated, the arrest warrant for Putin might go in similar trajectory of others