Will the International Criminal Court (icc) Be Able to Secure the Arrest of Vladimir Putin When He Travels?

Abstract

Abstract The arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (icc) in March 2023 against Russian President Vladimir Putin for crimes committed in Ukraine is one of the most momentous cases taken up by the Court. As Putin is unlikely to be arrested in Russia, the only way that he may be arrested and surrendered to the Court is if he travels to another state, particularly one that is a member of the icc, which would then have obligations to arrest him. May thus, the case against Putin by the icc brings into focus, once again, the crucial need for cooperation with the Court by states around the world. This is because the icc needs states to arrest accused persons if it is to successfully prosecute perpetrators of human rights violations. This article employs the issues concerning the non-arrest of the then President of Sudan Omar Al-Bashir in multiple icc State parties as a lens through which to examine the issues of state cooperation. Thus, the cases of Al-Bashir and Putin have many parallels which are examined. Importantly, between 2009, when the first arrest warrant against him was issued, and 2016, Al-Bashir had already undertaken more than 75 trips to at least 22 states without being arrested. At least seven of those states had ratified the Rome Statute. This article, therefore, examines other cases that were brought by the icc against Malawi, Chad, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo (drc), South Africa, Djibouti, Uganda, and Jordan. The article examines what can be learnt overall for issues of state cooperation. The article also reviews a range of ways that the icc can go about fostering greater state cooperation, and what it can do to ensure greater compliance by states when they do not cooperate.