As the United States considers sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the possible issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli officials, some experts are questioning the court’s value given its track record since it was established.
“[The ICC] With over 20 years of history, [but] “There have been fewer than 10 successful prosecutions,” Orde Kitley, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a law professor at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, told Fox News Digital. “Over $2 billion has been spent. It’s been completely ineffective.”
As of July 2022, 31 cases had been brought to the ICC, resulting in 10 convictions and four acquittals. The ICC has issued 37 arrest warrants, with 21 people ultimately detained and 12 remaining at large, according to the ICC. European Union External Action Service.
The ICC’s total annual budget for 2023 will be approximately $183.5 million, an increase of approximately $34.5 million, or approximately 20%, from the 2022 budget.
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Each member state contributes a share of the total budget based on the size of its economy, with the largest contributions coming from European economic powers, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Brazil. Human Rights Journal.
The largest donor in 2022 was Japan, with approximately $26.85 million, followed by Germany and France with approximately $19 million and $14.4 million, respectively.
President Biden speaks at a Jewish American Heritage Month reception in the Rose Garden at the White House on May 20, 2024. (Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Court’s budget is divided into nine categories: Judiciary, Office of the Prosecutor, Secretariat, Secretariat of the Assembly of States Parties, Facilities, Victims Trust Fund Secretariat, Permanent Facilities Project – Host Country Loan, Independent Monitoring Mechanism, and Internal Audit Office. The Court also points out that “assets held by the Court are not normally held to generate commercial benefits and are therefore non-cash generating assets,” meaning that it must be budgeted solely from donations.
Despite this budget, which is increasing significantly each year, the Court relies heavily on the cooperation of its members to operate. Registrar Peter Lewis, who will retire in 2023, said that even before it begins investigating the alleged crimes in Gaza, the Court faces an unprecedented workload and that the cooperation of states parties remains essential to any success.
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US sanctions
That makes any sanctions against the organization potentially devastating: In 2020, then-President Trump approved asset freezes and family bans on ICC officials after the ICC opened an investigation into alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan.
“The ICC prosecutor believes the Biden administration is more interested in a cozy relationship with the ICC than it is in protecting Israel and Americans from a power grab,” Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and president of Human Rights Voice, told Fox News Digital.
Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (Dimitar Dirkov/AFP via Getty Images)
“Justice would suffer a devastating blow unless President Biden immediately invokes the Protect Americans Service Members Act to end all cooperation and support for the ICC and use his authority to impose sanctions on ICC officials for the outrageous prosecution (indeed, persecution) of the democratic representatives of the Jewish state,” Bayevsky said.
While the Biden administration has stepped up cooperation with the ICC, providing the court with assistance and information to strengthen its investigation into alleged Russian war crimes during the invasion of Ukraine, Kitley noted that the ICC’s case against Putin “hasn’t changed anything” and may have only given the ICC prosecutor “some legitimacy.”
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Bayevsky and others are calling on the Biden administration to invoke the American Service Members Protection Act and impose sanctions on the ICC if arrest warrants are issued for Israeli officials.
Speaking at a Rose Garden news conference with Kenyan President William Ruto on Wednesday, Biden reiterated that the United States “has made its position clear on the ICC…We do not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction or the way it is exercised. That’s it. We do not equate Israeli actions with Hamas’ actions.”
This photo shows the International Criminal Court building in The Hague, Netherlands on April 30, 2024. (Selman Aksanger/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Rome Statute has been signed by 124 countries, including most of Africa, Europe and South America, but does not include some notable opponents, such as the United States, China, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea and Turkey.
The Biden administration has lifted the sanctions but reinforced the US’s position that it continues to “strongly oppose the ICC’s actions regarding the situation in Afghanistan and the Palestinian Territories.”
Center for Constitutional Rights He argued that the sanctions have delayed important ICC investigations and have “directly and indirectly” adversely affected the court’s work, but that the effects may not be as dramatic as the United States had hoped.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are photographed in the West Bank in August 2023. (Amos Ben Gershom (GPO)/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Instead, the group argued, the sanctions have created difficult cooperation between the ICC and its potential allies, including civil society groups, investigators, lawyers and victims, who fear they will be similarly sanctioned for supporting the ICC.
The ICC, which began operating in 2002, derives its authority from the signatories to the Rome Statute, which outlines the four main international crimes the court can prosecute – genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression – all of which are “not subject to any statute of limitations,” but only to crimes that occur after the Statute came into force.
President Clinton signed the act in 2000, but eventually demanded that the ICC address its “fundamental concerns” before he and other US presidents would submit the act to the US Senate for ratification. The Bush administration went a step further, withdrawing the US signature and instead American Military Personnel Protection Act.
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Also known as the “Hague Invasion Act,” the law allows the president to use “all necessary and appropriate means to effect the release” of U.S. citizens and nationals of allied countries who are detained or imprisoned by the ICC.
The bill also prohibits the United States from providing assistance to the ICC under Section 2004. The United States is prohibited from responding to requests for cooperation, providing assistance to the Court (including assistance from law enforcement agencies), assisting with extradition, and using funds appropriated to support the Court.
