International Criminal Court to Investigate Russia

This transcripts belong to the video that was published at May 2, 2022 and as such the information published in this article is based on the data that we had up until that point.

The International Criminal Court is now going to investigate Russia. The ICC prosecutor is to investigate possible war crimes in Ukraine. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the Hague has announced that he will launch an investigation into possible war crimes or crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Karim Khan said that although Ukraine was not a member of the ICC, it had awarded jurisdiction to the court. This is very important to understand. I’m going to tell you a little bit about how this works. The ICC, the international criminal court, comes from the Rome statute. This is signed the 1999 the year 2000 when they when countries started ratifying it and you have to be a member to start a case against another country. Now ,the attacker doesn’t have to be a member so as an example in the case of Israel and Palestine, Israel is not a member of the International Criminal Court. Go figure! the Palestinians, of course, have an issue regarding their status of the state [in which] they don’t have full member status at the United Nations. So last year the ICC decided we are still going to establish jurisdiction in Palestine, even though it doesn’t have full member status at the U.N., and this got the Israel s enraged. Why would the Israelis be enraged about a war crimes investigation, if they’re not a member of the ICC? Because you just need the victim to be a member of the ICC to launch an investigation.
In this case, Ukraine is not a member of the ICC but they still decided to cooperate and award jurisdiction to the court so the ICC prosecutor is saying that there was grounds to open an investigation based on a previous preliminary investigation on Crimea and the Donbass published last year and on current events in Ukraine. This is similar with Palestine. They don’t just investigate something [that is] happening now. They might bundle in a bunch of things and as we can see here this is also dealing with what’s been happening in Donbass and Crimea. So, Khan, the chief ICC prosecutor, says I’ve already tasked my team to explore all evidence and preservation opportunities. He said that he would go to ICC judges to approve the inquiry but it would be faster if an ICC member state referred the case to his office which would allow him to actively and immediately proceed with the office’s independent and objective investigations. There is a pre-trial which basically before they even start, they need permission from the ICC to launch an investigation. You can’t just decide I’m going to launch an investigation. You need to get permission first and that’s what happened with Palestine. They granted permission for the Chief Prosecutor to establish jurisdiction and then open a case. I know it’s a bit I’m trying to explain it as simple as possible so you can wrap your minds around it but this is basically how it works.
Earlier in the day, Lithuania had called on the ICC to open an investigation into possible war crimes by Russia and Belarus in Ukraine. So Lithuania’s Prime Minister, Simonyte, told the Washington Post that what Putin is doing is just a murder and nothing else. I hope he will be in the Hague which is in the Netherlands where the ICC is based. George Bush, Jr when he was President passed a law that says if an American has ever tried at the International Criminal Court, they will invade the Netherlands. I’m not exaggerating. I’m not like misreading. No, that’s exactly what I just told. If an American is ever taken to the International Criminal Court, the United States will invade the Netherlands. Talk about disrespect for international law! as you can deduce from what I’ve just stated to you, the United States is not a member of the ICC. So Bill Clinton was supposed to sign Rome Statue but dragged his feet and I think he does it on the last day in office. Then Bush gets in an office and he doesn’t ratify it. Russia is not a member of the ICC either. That’s also important to understand and I think that’s wrong. We can’t criticize the United States and Israel for not being a member of the ICC and then give Russia a pass. No!
It’s also wrong for Russia not to be a member of the ICC because there are several things that can be investigated. It’s not just war crimes. It’s crimes against humanity, the crime of aggression. For example, what people are saying that Russia has done now against Ukraine, is an example of crime of aggression. It’s basically starting a war for no reason. A quintessential example of a crime of aggression is the invasion of Iraq in 2003. There’s no U.N. Mandate. They tried going to the U.N. They lied at the U.N. The U.N. Said no and then they went in anyway. Interestingly enough, Tony Blair, for example, couldn’t be prosecuted for invading Iraq in the UK because the UK although it signed the Rome Statute and it’s an ICC member, there is one crime which it did not ratify and codify into British law and what is that? It’s the crime of aggression.
so that’s how you end up with Tony Blair escaping justice. Anyway, they want to go and they want to go after. There’s an article from RT which says the same thing and I just think it’s interesting. Why do I think it’s really interesting? Because they want to go after Russia within a week -this hasn’t been a week since Russia invaded or started their military operation or policing operation- and already the ICC is saying let’s open up an investigation. Wonderful! let the rule of international law prevail. My question to you is why have Palestinians had to wait so long until last year so when the ICC was looking to investigate Israeli crimes in Palestine, it’s several crimes. What was happening In 2018 or 2019? You had Palestinians who would go every Friday after prayers and protest at the so-called border fence, demanding to return home. They want to go back to their homes that were stolen by the Israelis settlers and what would happen to them? The Israelis would just shoot them. There was a famous headline where one of the Israeli soldiers is bragging that he shot 42 knees in one day. They would purposely cripple people, not even just kill them. Just disable them! you had so many amputations that it’s unbelievable! this is one of the things that the ICC wanted to investigate. Another thing for example is the bombing of Gaza in 2014. I think you had over 2000 Palestinians who were killed. 65 percent of them were civilians. The majority of those people were in their homes when they were killed which shows you that the Israelis were targeting residential areas. And that was in 2014 and if we’re being honest, these are just a few of the crimes that should be investigated but nevertheless… my question is that, this happened in 2014 when they went into Gaza. How come it took until 2021 for the ICC to finally say we will we will recognize jurisdiction over Palestine? [which finally enables us] to launch an investigation. Who did this? That was Fatou Bensouda. She used to be the ICC chief prosecutor before Khan just her mandate was just until a few months ago and so just before she leaves -I’m not accusing her necessarily of being doing anything devious, I’m just telling you the facts- that’s when she gets approval to give jurisdiction on the Palestinians. It’s not just her decision. The ICC has to give her that permission. And, again, my question is why do Palestinians have to wait so long but with Russia it’s just snap your fingers and let’s go?
I could also argue about Iraq and why no one has been prosecuted for Iraq. Because if you’re going to come here and tell me war is bad and international law should prevail, [I would say] fine, great! but where is it when there are much more egregious crimes that should have been dealt with decades ago? That’s my question. And I’m trying to understand why the world is jumping into action, trying to punish Russia, sanction Russia, ban RT, go after Russia and the ICC [open up an investigation] and in general make people who go into other countries a pariah, why is it that it doesn’t it count when YOU do it? Because the people are doing this to Russia are hypocrites. It’s the EU. It’s EU member states. It’s the UK. It’s the USA. They’re hypocrites. They’ve done far worse than Russia and no one turned on them like that. There is a double standard here. Whatever you think of Russia, whatever you think of Ukraine, there is a double standard here. You must acknowledge this. It’s not even just a double standard in morality and discourse and rhetoric, it’s even a legal double standard because the law is being applied for one party and it’s not being applied for another party. That is what’s concerning here.
here I want to mention a statement which is from a press release from the President of the International Court of Justice. This was from 1st of March. The President of the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, addressed today in urgent communication to the minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Lavrov, with a copy to the government of Ukraine in the case, concerning allegations of genocide under the convention on prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide. In the text of the communication, it says “I have the honor to refer to the request for the indication of provisional measures filed in the proceedings instituted by Ukraine against the Russian federation on 26th of February 2022.” and so they “hereby call the attention of the Russians to act in a way that would enable the court to make any provisional measures”. The ICJ, which I just read you the statement of, is not the exact same thing as the ICC because as it says in the document it that I just read you, it’s the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. The ICC is different and it’s based in the Hague and it’s it comes from the Rome Statute. The International Criminal Court is as the name implies it’s for criminal cases and the International Court of Justice is usually for a civil court between countries that hears disputes between countries, for example, if you have a trade dispute, you would go to the ICJ, not necessarily the ICC.
So not just ICC, but also the UN, both are jumping into action. Wonderful! Finally, these institutions actually do something. It’s great but where is it when you need it for things like Iraq or Libya or other countries which I can’t go through the list because there are too many countries, so I’m just giving you the most recent ones. In my opinion sanctions and when you go and starve someone to death that’s still an act of aggression. If you do that to someone then don’t come here and tell me like bombs are more humane than starving someone to death. They’re both attacks. They don’t even treat sanctions as something serious. It’s just like whatever. Make no mistake, it is illegal under international law when the US puts sanctions on for example Russia. They’re not sanctioned by the U.N. The UN didn’t allow the sanctions so technically they’re not legal under international law. They’re unilateral coercive measures and no one’s gets punished for that. And the irony is that even when the UN approves them, they are lethal. The UN backed the sanctions against Iraq in the 90s. Remember the interview from the U.S. Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, where she’s asked by a reporter: Do you think it was worth killing 500000 children in Iraq with sanctions, not bombs, sanctions! half a million children in Iraq! These are supposedly legal. Does that make it right? No! it’s just as brutal. Just as brutal! I don’t think you could have even killed 500 thousand Iraqi children with bombs even if you try.
Sanctions are a concerted calculated effort to attack a country and I don’t think that’s taken seriously at all. Anyway, just going back to the ICC. What they’re saying here, in the article from RT, is they basically published the same statement from the official ICC website. This is the same thing that that I just read to you about starting a case against Russia. Ukraine is not a state party to the Rome Statute, neither Russia but they’re going for it nevertheless. They’re also including crimes committed on Ukrainian territory from “November 2013 to February 2014”. So they’re also taking those crimes into account. It’s not just what’s happening now but nevertheless I feel like there’s a real global effort to quickly jump into action. We’ll go and attack Russia on every level economic financial judicial that you can name it. We’ll even send military aid but when other countries do something similar, it’s just not there. Once again I’ve been trying to paint you the double standards. Here’s one of them. This is one of the clear double standards that you’re seeing.