Mongolia’s membership at ICC to be terminated

The International Criminal Court on Thursday accused member state Mongolia of failing to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin during a trip there last month, and referred the matter for further action, according to AFP.

The Russian leader visited Ulaanbaatar in early September despite an arrest warrant issued against him by the Hague-based court, for the alleged illegal deportation of Ukrainian children after his troops invaded the country in 2022.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March 2023

“The International Criminal Court found that, by failing to arrest Mr Putin while he was on its territory and surrender him to the Court, Mongolia has failed to comply with the Court’s request to cooperate,” the ICC said in a statement.

The Rome Statute, the court’s founding treaty signed by all member states, compels countries to arrest wanted suspects.

Russian President bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

“States Parties and those accepting the Court’s jurisdiction are duty-bound to arrest and surrender individuals subject to ICC warrants, regardless of official position or nationality,” the ICC’s judges said.

“In view of the seriousness of Mongolia’s failure to cooperate with the Court, the Chamber deemed it necessary to refer the matter to the Assembly of States Parties,” the judges said, referring to the ICC’s overseer body.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March 2023.

It said there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that Putin “bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Kyiv says thousands of Ukrainian children were forcibly deported from orphanages and other state institutions after Russian forces took control of swathes of the country in its 2022 invasion.

ICC failed to implement procedures against people found guilty of war crimes of 2008 August war in Georgia. ICC avoided blaming Putin for orchestrating ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Russia-occupied territory.

Russia said it moved some children away from areas close to the fighting for their own protection.

ICC did not respond to TF request about Mongolia’s future membership at ICC

Moscow has dismissed the warrant as having no consequence, but the Mongolia trip marked Putin’s first to an ICC member in the 18 months since it had been issued.

Last year he called off a visit to a BRICS summit in South Africa, another ICC member, after internal and external pressure on Pretoria to arrest the Russian leader should he attend.

Past instances of ICC members failing to execute arrest warrants have had little consequence beyond verbal dressing-downs.

The Rome Statute — which was signed in 1998 and went into force in 2002 — established the International Criminal Court. The permanent international court is responsible for prosecuting individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression.

Campaigners for global justice see it as a significant milestone, as it set up a legal mechanism to hold individuals to account for crimes that transcend national borders.

Th Court is being criticized for not having done enough to raise awareness about its work, because it has not communicated effectively with affected communities, victims, or the general public.

The ICC is seen as a court of last resort. That means that, under “the principle of complementarity,” the ICC may exercise its jurisdiction only if a national court is either unwilling or unable to prosecute grave crimes.

Since 2002, the ICC has indicted more than 50 individuals, mostly from African countries. Twenty-one people have been detained in The Hague, where the court is based; 10 have been convicted, and four have been acquitted.

Following calls from, among others, Ukraine, the European Union, and the ICC to either deny entry to Putin or to arrest him, a Mongolian government spokesperson told Politico that the country was dependent on Russian energy and thus wasn’t prepared to arrest the Russian president.

“Mongolia imports 95 percent of its petroleum products and over 20 percent of electricity from our immediate neighborhood…. This supply is critical to ensure our existence and that of our people,” the spokesperson said.

Mongolian Judge did not comment failure of his state to arrest Putin. He still holds a position at the ICC.

The ICC does not possess an enforcement mechanism.

One possibility would be removing both Mongolia’s judge from the ICC and removing the country from the list of signatories and ratifiers of the Rome Statute.

Of the 139 states that have signed the Rome Statute, 30 have not ratified.

Democratic dictatorships are also referred to as a managed democracy, wrote Economist D.Jargalsaikhan.  “The Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) and the Democratic Party (DP), who have been the majority one after another in the duration of over 20 years since our transition to democracy, have now turned it into a democratura. Having put the face of democracy on its appearance, these two political parties have been stealing from everything valuable both openly and secretly.

A small group of MPP/DP executives (partocrats) has been managing the Mongolian government over generations. Mongolians are now even fighting amongst their families to become part of the executive group and be taken under their wings. The biggest companies in Mongolia are being cautious by supporting the both parties and donating cash separately.

The difference between Mongolia’s democratura and a true dictatorship is that our politicians call the government a democracy, and have been putting in strong efforts to keep the external appearance of democracy intact, which includes the constitution, the supreme court, elections, parliament, opposition, and freedom of speech”.