1/2 There is an unspoken truth about international criminal law as it is practiced today; namely, that certain persons from powerful or strategically important nations will never be tried before an international tribunal. Britain’s former foreign secretary, the late Robin Cook, made that point clear when, shortly after Britain signed the agreement establishing the ICC, he said: “If I may say so, this is not a court set up for the prime minister of England or the president of the United States.” It is as if the ICC has been entrusted with the mission of civilizing a new, 21st century version of the ‘white man’s burden’. Instead, the crisis in Ukraine is a model of efficiency, resilience and collective solidarity by international agencies for refugee protection, human rights and international criminal responsibility, including the ICC, with proposed humanitarian hierarchies that should annoy everyone. The arrest warrant against Putin alone is a reminder that the ICC has the capacity to open and close investigations at short notice, regardless of the politics surrounding it. One day after the announcement of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ICC Prosecutor issued a statement on the situation in Ukraine, expressing concern at the latest developments in the country and urging all parties to
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I’m glad Fernhout applauds the West’s swift solidarity with Ukraine! As brutal as Cook is, I think Fernhout, like Amnesty, is a bit out of proportion. It is likely that the crimes of the British prime minister are barely comparable to those of Xi or Putin.
“The UK prime minister’s crime odds really don’t compare to Xi’s or Putin’s” you (and I) think. But in saying so, you’re making a number of assumptions based entirely on your Western rose-tinted glasses.
@Norsemen Regardless of the color of the glasses: it’s about us seeing clearly. Then about facts, which remain intact, regardless of the color of our glasses.
“And then about facts” And what are facts? That we in the West determine what is evil and what is not? That our awareness of norms and values is decisive in this matter?
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