OPINION | Time will tell whether Putin will attend or send a delegation to the summit. South African officials will be hoping for the latter because they have a callous decision to make if he does come.
n 17 March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for his alleged war crimes in Ukraine. The court accused Putin, alongside Maria Alexeyevna Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s rights in the office of the Russian president, of “unlawful deportation and transfer of the Ukrainians from the occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia”.
While Russia signed this statute in 2000, they never ratified it and withdrew the country’s signature in 2016. However, president of the ICC Piotr Hofmanski dismissed the Russian claims, arguing that “the court has jurisdiction over crimes committed in the territory of a state party or a state which has accepted its jurisdiction”. Even though Ukraine is not a member of the ICC, it has accepted the ICC’s jurisdiction.
South Africa faced criticism for its failure to make the arrest, with the ICC later ruling that the country had failed to uphold its obligation to the court as a signatory. While South Africa attempted to withdraw from the Rome Statute after the Al-Bashir controversy, the country remains a member of the ICC. The government might have to make another tough decision — whether or not to arrest the Russian president and hand him over to the ICC if he does come to the country in August.
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