Narrative
Article reserved for subscribers
The Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute opens Monday, December 2 in The Hague, at a time when the International Criminal Court and its prosecutor must face attacks from the United States, Israel as well as reservations of France after the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his former Minister of Defense.
The firing is intense and the observation is unanimous. Never have there been so many declarations, threats and attacks against the International Criminal Court since it took office in 2002. And the arrest warrant issued by prosecutor Karim Khan on November 21 against the head of government Israeli Benyamin Netanyahu and his former Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, constituted a serious step up in scale and intensity. The ICC is engaged in the toughest battle in its young history.
Optimists will welcome this pressure as a mark of recognition of the growing and visibly effective power of the judges in The Hague. On the other hand, pessimists will be alarmed and fear a weakening of the only permanent international court, or even its disappearance. This debate risks intensifying as the 23rd assembly of the 124 states having ratified the Rome Statute opens on Monday, December 2 in The Hague. And that the future administration has
France
