MICHAEL WALSH SPECIAL REPORT: The erratic history of the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague Netherlands is enough in itself to question the validity of the controversial podium of adjudicators’ credibility and purpose.

The most glaring loss of credibility is the politicization of charges and the selectivity which acts as a precursor to witch-hunts being mounted. An intergovernmental agency the court’s jurisdiction is to prosecute individuals for alleged international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression.

The term intergovernmental’ appears to be a sleight of hand designed to create the impression that the ICC is an international court. In truth, support for the ICC falls far short of international endorsement. The court has only 123 member states and employs 900 people.

The court consists of 18 hand-picked judges and a president chosen by his or her peers. The ICC lacks international endorsement and may only investigate crimes alleged to have been committed by members of member states. Neither the United States nor Russia is a signatory of the ICC whilst Ukraine, though not a member, accepts the court’s jurisdiction. In theory, a person charged by the ICC could be arrested and charged on the territory of a member state.

Far from setting standards of competence the ICC is itself charged by governments and civil societies with several ineptitudes including bias, eurocentrism, racism, selectivity, flawed trial procedures and effectiveness. For these and other reasons, the validity of the International Criminal Court lacks the clout to deliver other than empty and unfulfilled promises.

Such is the ICC court’s lack of integrity that it is an easy target for accusations of a multitude of sins. For this reason, Russia has launched a criminal probe into the purpose and authority of the ICC.

First proposed at the notoriously one-sided Paris Peace Conference (1919). the concept of the ICC was further established in the wake of World War II with the stated purpose of pursuing those accused of war crimes committed but only after World War II.

The US State Department distances itself from recent charges made against Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, Washington’s lack of support for the spurious charge is unlikely to be fear of similar improbable charges made against US presidents and US warmongers. It is more credibly a ruse to distance itself from charges that the ICC is a tool of US omnipotence.

The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against the prosecutor of the ICC Karim Ahmad Khan president and several of the quasi-court’s judges based on their “unlawful” decision to charge and issue a warrant for President Vladimir Putin’s arrest.

According to the Russian Investigative Committee, Karim Ahmad Khan is under investigation on the grounds of “criminal prosecution of a person (Putin) known to be innocent.” Furthermore, the investigative committee lays a charge of preparation for an attack on a representative of a foreign state enjoying international protection.”

The charge is that the Russian state leader committed a war crime through the unlawful abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children. The ICC said it had also issued a warrant against Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, on similar charges. Moscow’s dismissal of the charges as “void” is shared by many nations and pundits.

The charges relate to the alleged deportation of more than 16,000 Ukrainian children in captured territories who were deported to Russia since the Feb. 24, 2022 invasion. Kyiv alleges that many of the children were placed in institutions and foster homes.

The court’s pre-trial judges said there were “reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population, and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children.” The ICC judges claim to have chosen to unseal the names of the alleged perpetrators in an effort to prevent similar further crimes.

Reports first emerged last spring that Ukrainian children in territories ceded to Russia by plebiscite were being taken to Russia, and many were being adopted by Russian families. Russia has presented its actions as a humanitarian mission to save Ukrainian children from the ongoing conflict. But Kyiv has accused Russia of genocide and described its actions as a war crime.

The alleged abductees include young people taken from Ukrainian state institutions in the occupied areas, children whose parents had sent them to Russian-run summer camps from which they never returned, kids whose parents were arrested by the Russian occupying authorities, and children who were orphaned by the fighting.

Russia concedes to holding at least 1,400 Ukrainian children it describes as orphans. Moscow adds that at least 2,000 young people had travelled to Russia unaccompanied. Several hundred children remain in Russia after they attended “re-education” camps with the consent of their parents but were not returned.

Since the invasion, at least 400 Ukrainian orphans have been adopted by Russian families. According to the Ukrainian Regional Center for Human Rights, Russia agrees that 1,000 more youngsters are waiting to be adopted.

Kyiv claims that many of the children have living relatives seeking them. About 90% of Ukrainian children who were living in state care at the time of the invasion were “social orphans”, meaning they had relatives but those family members were unable to take care of them.

Russia does not identify the young people or provide details about their location, making it difficult for the Ukrainian and international authorities to identify them and track their movements. Discover real news differently.

Please share this story on social media:

MIKE WALSH is a journalist, broadcaster and the author of WITNESS TO HISTORY: THE REICH LEGEND UNCENSORED, LIFE IN THE REICH, MY LAST TESTAMENT – LET GOD JUDGE ME, HEROES HANG WHEN TRAITORS TRIUMPH, and other book titles. These best-selling books are essential for the libraries of informed readers.

WITNESS TO HISTORY: THE REICH LEGEND UNCENSORED

MY LAST TESTAMENT—LET GOD JUDGE ME

LIFE IN THE REICH

HEROES HANG WHEN TRAITORS TRIUMPH: MARTYRS OF WORLD WAR II

We are in debt to our donors who finance the distribution of spin-free real news and fearlessly expressed views.

BUY FROM AUTHOR

MEGACAUST Michael Walsh. R. J. Rummel, Power Kills: Genocide and Mass Murder (Journal of Peace Research) 164 million people have been killed in cold blood this century by Capitalist / Communist governments.

SLAUGHTER OF A DYNASTY Michael Walsh. Covertly sponsored by Wall Street banks and the White House Bolsheviks seized Tsarist Russia (regime change). For 36 years news of Bolshevik atrocities and 70 million martyred Christians were censored by Western media. Lavishly illustrated, this expose reveals secrets removed from Western history books.

When ordering the book contact Michael Walsh by email euroman_uk@yahoo.co.uk to receive your signed copy.

New stories every day!

EUROPE RENAISSANCE

https://europerenaissance.com/