By Chief Charles A. Taku*
The twenty-fourth session of the Assembly of State Parties of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ASP) took place The Hague Netherlands from 1-5 December 2025. It ended with a strong commitment by delegates and civil society organizations which were present to staunchly defend the International Criminal Court (ICC) against unwarranted and unjustified coercive measures. These measures include aggressive sanctions against the Court, Judges, the Chief Prosecutor, his two deputies and civil societies and persons cooperating with the court.
During plenary sessions, side events and in the corridors of the conference, delegates, civil society organizations and participants generally, condemned cyber-attacks which interrupted the operations of the court for several months, espionage, aggressive sanctions and other acts of sabotage aimed at undermining the independence of the court. Punitive sanctions by the USA due to arrest warrants which were issued by the court against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the former Minister of Israel Gallant were vehemently condemned by most delegates of the 125 member multilateral treaty regime.
The attendance at the conference was low going by passed experiences. Significant NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and significant civil society organizations were absent. This was a remarkable fallout from US sanctions and threat of sanctions and a visible climate of fear which hung over some attendees. US Sanctions targeting Palestinian human rights organizations which filed complaints on behalf of Palestinian victims which gave rise to the warrants against the PM and Mr Gallant were also absent. This was caused by their activism for justice and peace in Palestine and being named terrorist organizations which choked them out of resources and visas to travel to The Hague for the conference.
The conference praised the resilience of the ICC towards the delivery of justice and for its independence despite multiple threats. The ASP adopted a slight increase in the budget of the Court to meet ongoing challenges and to sustain its operations.
The unwavering determination and support for the Court expressed by the ASP expressed by the President of the Assembly H.E Ms. Paivi Kaukoranta in her concluding statement emphasized this determination. H.E Paivi Kaukoranta stated, ” Notwithstanding global challenges, we stood united. I am confident that by working together we will as we have during this Assembly and consistently in the past, protect the independence of the Court and the Rome Statute system”.
This cautious optimism belied a general climate of anxiety about the harm which the Court has endued since Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan took a leave of absence from the Court to allow investigations into an alleged affair with a female staff which was outsourced by the Bureau of the ASP. The prolonged outsourced investigation opened a floodgate of unethical ill-intentioned leaks replete with skewed prurient accounts which have fueled a social media and mainstream media frenzy. This prolonged investigation with its persistent targeted leaks, have embarrassingly, gone uninvestigated. This potentially undermines its legitimacy and the very rationale for outsourcing it out of the competent institutional organs of the Court. It has created a precedent which may further call the entire process into question. This has fueled allegations that the entire allegation might have been initiated by persons who are subject to ICC warrants to embarrass, undermine and destroy the Court, its Chief Prosecutor force them to drop the warrants. The fact that investigations of the leaks within the ICC have not been investigated is a matter of concern.
The Court and the host state acted efficaciously and efficiently when a foreign interest was infiltrated within the Court and was identified and removed. The Court therefore has the capacity and the institutional framework to investigate these leaks and should do so. The Court has also investigated and countered a vicious cyber-attack which hampered the operations of the Court and endangered its personnel, victims, and its mandate.
The Court is aware of threats on the Chief Prosecutor who is targeted by an arrest warrant in retaliation of the warrant which was issued in respect of the Situation in Ukraine. The Court is aware public statements which persons against whom warrants were issued in the Situation in Palestine have made during which alleged information emanating the investigatiotn has been repeatedly raised. This makes the investigation of any allegation against the Chief Prosecutor and Court staff to be handled with caution.
Despite the strong condemnation of Cyberattack against the Court, the leak of information occurring within the Court, including information undermining investigations, and information capable of being used to impose sanction on ICC Personnel and endangering the lives of persons, including victims, witnesses, cooperation contacts and many others have gone uninvestigated. This is a vector impunity which may even discourage state cooperation and instill fear and affect the credibility of the Court.
Many delegates, and attendees at the sidelines of the conference were concerned that yearlong unreasonably prolonged investigative process might already have created a destabilizing climate capable of undermining the independence of the Court whose independence the ASP vouchsafed to safeguard and protect. Many of the delegates were disappointed that the Chief Prosecutor is not back at work, at a time he is needed to provide a strong response to the genocide in Darfur, the Democratic Republic and other areas of tension in the world needing his strong and steady leadership. He visited Sudan and the DRC and made strong commitments to pursue robust investigations and to seek warrants for the arrest of masterminds of atrocity crimes to come and face international justice.
Many delegates and civil society attendees, I spoke to, recognized that Karim Khan is staunchly independent, incorruptible, courageous and highly qualified. Given the culture of impunity and abuse of power by world powers, many victims’ representatives, civil society organizations and attendees; a majority from Africa, were unanimous that history will retain that Karim Khan sought and obtained warrants for the untouchables of the earth in the Situation in Ukraine and the Situation in Palestine. A Palestinian victim whose preferred anonymity who lost many members of her family, in an emotional voice told me that even if the only form of justice victims of atrocity crimes in her homeland will end up having are the warrants, then for her, Karim Khan will go down in history as someone who moved the “equality before the law” from a mere slogan for the most powerful, towards its actualization for victims and for humanity. The absence of Karim Khan therefore over this prolonged period, has enable impunity of the powerful to fight back and for the conscience and soul of humanity to be consumed by the fire and orgy of the impunity of the powerful. Some referenced the capricious tools of impunity which includes using proxies to malign, blackmail, threaten and even infiltrate the organs of justice and accountability. They were concerned that some society associations from some Situation countries, citing Venezuela for example where some civil society organizations were asking for warrants against their leaders not necessarily for the purpose of accountability but to provide international legitimacy for potential US military action against Venezuela
The withdrawal of the Sahel States of Africa is partly informed by allegations that France, their erstwhile colonial power, was scheming to get the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC to intervene and target their leaders and military commanders who are fighting foreign and Sahelian terrorists with investigations and international warrants of arrest. Some human rights organizations from Africa, some civil society organizations, some delegates and some persons from the region disclosed that renegade neocolonial agents and associations from these countries, were equipped and enabled to pursue this objective which they hope may materialize during this prolonged absence of Karim Khan whom they feared is firmly independent, non-manipulable, uncorruptible, independent and strongly committed to the principle of complementarity which he made a strong cornerstone of his prosecutorial policy.
Karim Khan adopted a policy of skilled diplomacy and engagement to enforce a policy of complementarity which encourages credible and effective investigations and ensured stability, the role of law and national healing in Situation Countries. Karim Khan knows when the orgy of unchecked impunity bays for the blood of innocent victims- women, children, men, the poor and the weak. He knows that every person counts and that diversity which should be celebrated humanity has been turned on its head and made a tool of criminality by warmongers, masterminds of atrocity crimes. He strongly holds the view which is sacrosanct, that the blood in the vein of all peoples is an unimpeachable prove of our common humanity, equality and sanctity of life; which must be protected. He has demonstrated this over and over again. The time for him to come back to his office and be at the service of humanity is now.
*Chief Charles Taku is a foremost human rights crusader and former President of the International Criminal Court Bar Association- ICCBA,
