In the wake of Prosecutor's Khan's removal from office, a number of people have asked me whether the current Deputy Prosecutors or the next Prosecutor could withdraw the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. In this post, I will explain why I think the answer is formally no but practically yes. To begin with, nothing in the Rome Statute gives the...
[Catherine Maia is a professor of International Law at Lusófona University (Portugal), and Sciences Po Paris (France)] On 9 June 2026, ICC Pre-Trial Chamber II issued a significant decision in the Situation in Ukraine concerning the interpretation of Article 97 of the Rome Statute. Although the judgment remains heavily redacted, it provides the Court’s most comprehensive guidance to date on the consultation procedure available...
[Terje Einarsen is Professor of International Law at the University of Bergen, former Judge at Gulating Court of Appeals and Chairperson of the Norwegian Section of International Commission of Jurists] Part I of this post discussed the institutional and political context for the upcoming ASP meeting. It also considered issues of due process and argued that the front door to removal and suspension through...
[Terje Einarsen is Professor of International Law at the University of Bergen, former Judge at Gulating Court of Appeals and Chairperson of the Norwegian Section of International Commission of Jurists] When the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) meet in New York on the 24th of July, to decide on the fate of the current elected...
For two years, selective leaks of information have led to a deluge of breathless media reports about the serious misconduct the Prosecutor allegedly committed against a member of his staff. I won't repeat those allegations here -- you can find them for yourself -- but they have always focused on nonconsensual sexual conduct, including sexual assault and rape. The Bureau...
[Ezequiel Jimenez Martinez has a PhD in International Law, is a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Law Research and Policy and an Associated Senior Lecturer at the Pompeu Fabra Law Faculty. He is the author of Governing the International Criminal Court: the History and Practice of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute (Brill, 2025). All...
[Akila Radhakrishnan is an independent human rights lawyer and gender justice expert. She is the former President and Legal Director of the Global Justice Center. Payal Shah is an international legal expert on gender, health, and conflict. She serves as the Director of Research, Legal, and Advocacy at Physicians for Human Rights.] In this post, we delve into how reproductive violence can support findings...
[Akila Radhakrishnan is an independent human rights lawyer and gender justice expert. She is the former President and Legal Director of the Global Justice Center. Payal Shah is an international legal expert on gender, health, and conflict. She serves as the Director of Research, Legal, and Advocacy at Physicians for Human Rights.] Today marks the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in...
There is a rumour circulating in ICC circles that the Bureau is having buyer's remorse about a paper it drafted and adopted earlier this year concerning the procedure that would apply to the investigation of the Prosecutor. I've been told by various journalists that the procedures paper says the ASP must hold two votes, not one, over the Bureau's recent...
[Sabrina Ochoa is a Fellow at the Institute for Current World Affairs (ICWA), a graduate of Harvard Law School, and a licensed member of the New York bar] In April 2026, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court released its judgment on the challenge to the Court’s jurisdiction in the case of The Prosecutor v. Rodrigo Roa Duterte in the Situation in the Republic...
[Thairi Moya Sánchez is Professor of Public International Law at the Complutense University of Madrid] In Aeschylus’ tragedy Eumenides, the transition frompersonalvengeance to adjudication before a newly constituted court dramatizes a foundational intuition of the rule of law, namely that even the gravest conflicts ought to be resolved through a visible, constrained and reasoned institutional sequence rather than by discretionary power....
[Gerhard Kemp is professor of criminal law at UWE Bristol and serves on the board of directors and executive committee of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town] The recently adopted “Death Penalty for Terrorists Law” (unofficial translation, here) was met with widespread condemnation by governments (e.g., here, here), civil society and human rights groups (e.g., here), the UN High...