ICC: Russia Joins Others To Reject Court

The 15^th General Assembly meeting of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is holding at The Hague.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) continues to register rejections as Russia  on November 16, 2016 joined the United States of America, Burundi, South Africa and the Gambia to withdraw from the court’s treaty. Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved an order to withdraw the nation from the process of joining the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The decision came after an ICC ruling that Russia's activity in Crimea amounted to an "ongoing occupation", BBC reports. The court ruled that Russia's 2014 takeover of the Crimea peninsula had been an armed conflict between it and Ukraine, meaning  the annexation fell under the court's jurisdiction. Government spokesman Dmitry Peskov is quoted as saying that the wording "contradicts reality", while the foreign ministry called the court "one-sided and inefficient".

Russia has found itself the subject of the court's focus on more than one occasion. As such, earlier this year, the court authorised an investigation into the 2008 Russia-Georgia conflict in South Ossetia. The Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in response to the Russian decision said "We owe it to future generations not to abandon the ICC." Indeed, the court was established to pass judgement on four international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and...