At a meeting of one-hundred-twenty-four ICC member states on dec-2nd‚ the courts leadership expressed deep worries about its future. Judge Tomoko Akane highlighted threats that could stop the court from working properly
The situation got more complex when Russia made moves against Karim Khan (the ICCʼs chief-prosecutor) just months after the court went after Vladimir Putin. The US house of reps didnt help things - they passed a bill to punish the court for looking into Benjamin Netanyahuʼs actions
Some real-world problems are showing up too: even though ICC member-states should help catch people the court wants‚ many European countries are finding ways not to help. France thinks Netanyahu cant be touched; Italy isnt sure what to do‚ and Britain and Germany dont want to talk about it
The ICC started working about 22 years ago to deal with big crimes when countries cant or wont handle them themselves. Since then its been busy - going after people like Min Aung Hlaing from Myanmar just this past week. But theres a catch - the court doesnt have its own police‚ so it needs help from other countries to do its job
Professor Sergey Vasiliev who knows lots about the court says this is bad news: “When countries pick-and-choose which court orders to follow‚ it could make the whole system fall apart“ Its kind of like having traffic laws that only some people follow