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The International Criminal Court building is seen in The Hague, Netherlands, January 16, 2019. Photo/REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
MOSCOW – There are at least three major countries that are not members of the ICC or the International Criminal Court.
In its understanding, the ICC is an international-scale judicial institution whose task is to investigate and try war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and crimes of aggression.
Currently, they are recorded as having 123 member countries. However, it turns out that not all major countries have joined the ICC.
In this case, there are some of them who choose not to join for many different reasons.
Major Countries in the World that are not Members of the ICC:
Here are three countries in the world that are not members of the ICC.
1. United States
The United States (US) is one of the most influential countries in the world. However, it turns out that they are not part of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
This status can actually be seen when the name of the United States is not listed in the list of 123 ICC members. However, please note that the US has its own reasons for this decision.
Quoting the European Council on Foreign Relations page, Tuesday (21/3/2023), the ICC has jurisdiction to try crimes committed by citizens of member countries to crimes committed in the territory of member countries.
At the beginning of the establishment of the ICC, the US had previously opposed this provision. The reason is because they are worried that the jurisdiction can harm its citizens.
In this case, the US considers that the prosecution of its citizens before international bodies without the consent of the country is a violation of sovereignty.
2. Russia
Next is Russia. Recently, this country has been in the spotlight after President Vladimir Putin became a fugitive from the ICC which issued an arrest warrant for him.
Quoting the Nomad Capitalist website, Russia actually signed the Rome Statute in 2000 and once supported the ICC. However, in 2016 Putin decided to withdraw his signature.
In terms of its status, this move was interpreted as purely symbolic because Russia did not fully accede to the Rome Statute. Furthermore, at that time Moscow was also accused of committing war crimes during the military intervention in Syria.
This further cemented Russia’s final decision to no longer be part of the ICC.
3. China
China is also not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC). In this case, Beijing has a number of different reasons for its decision to remain outside the ICC.
One of them is China’s concern regarding the openness of the ICC to political influence. This can happen because of their provisions that allow prosecutors to make decisions to conduct investigations.
Apart from that, they also oppose the fact that the ICC has the power to judge whether or not a country is capable of bringing its own citizens to justice.
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