On 17 March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin - President of the Russian Federation - and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation. The warrant focuses on war crimes relating to children - the unlawful deportation of population and unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
What are the implications of such a warrant, against a sitting head of state, of a non-state party to the Rome Statute? What are the obligations on Rome Statute state parties in relation to this warrant? Given the specific nature and type of crimes that are the focus of the arrest warrant, what does this signal? Is this a new and bold step forward in the fight against state impunity, or is this arrest warrant bound to be consigned to the history books with nary an impact?
30 мар 2023
