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.
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