The Silence of the ICC Prosecutor — Hafiz Hassan

The Silence of the ICC Prosecutor — Hafiz Hassan


Wednesday, 18 Oct 2023 8:07 AM MYT


OCTOBER 18 — The current conflict in Ukraine began on February 24 last year when Russian military forces entered the country from Belarus, Russia and Crimea.

Prior to the invasion, there had already been eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said it was a “special military operation” intended to protect the people of the Donbas and to “demilitarise and denazify Ukraine”. He denied that Russia planned to occupy Ukrainian territory or to “impose anything on anyone by force”.

Civilian casualties in less than five days of the attacks numbered in the hundreds (368 killed, 469 injured). It prompted the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan to announce that he would seek authorisation to open an investigation into the ”Situation in Ukraine“.


He said he would closely follow developments on the ground in Ukraine, and called for restraint and strict adherence to the applicable rules of international humanitarian law.


Karim Khan had earlier expressed his “increasing concern”, echoing those of world leaders and citizens of the world alike, over the events unfolding in Ukraine. It was part of a statement he issued within 24 hours after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Within a week, the ICC Prosecutor had already announced that he had proceeded to open an investigation into the Situation in Ukraine with the scope of the situation encompassing “any past and present allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide committed on any part of the territory of Ukraine by any person from 21 November 2013 onwards”.

Within a year of the investigation, the ICC Prosecutor was able to apply for warrants of arrest on February 22 this year which the ICC duly issued on March 17 against two individuals: Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights.

The ICC considered that there were reasonable grounds to believe that each of them bore responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children.

If the unlawful deportation and transfer of children are war crimes, what about the indiscriminate killing of children in Palestine and Israel?

And what about the “complete siege on Gaza” with no electricity, no food, no water, no gas. It is collective punishment of the Gaza population and war crime.

In a statement released on the warrants of arrest against Putin and Lvova-Belova, the ICC said:

“The Chamber considered that the warrants are secret in order to protect victims and witnesses and also to safeguard the investigation. Nevertheless, mindful that the conduct addressed in the present situation is allegedly ongoing, and that the public awareness of the warrants may contribute to the prevention of the further commission of crimes, the Chamber considered that it is in the interests of justice to authorise the Registry to publicly disclose the existence of the warrants, the name of the suspects, the crimes for which the warrants are issued, and the modes of liability as established by the Chamber.”

Yet not a statement on the current situation in the Gaza Strip. (Press releases and statements from the ICC may be viewed here.)

When the world is once again witnessing atrocities committed against civilians in Palestine and Israel, where is the ICC Prosecutor, asked Rebecca Hamilton, Executive Editor of Just Security and Associate Professor of Law at American University, Washington College of Law.

Palestinians take part in a protest after hundreds of Palestinians were killed in a blast at Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza that Israeli and Palestinian officials blamed on each other, in Tubas, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank October 17, 2023. — Reuters pic


The ICC Prosecutor needs to break his silence on the situation in Palestine, said Mark Kersten, a consultant at the Wayamo Foundation and an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice & Criminology at the University of the Fraser Valley.

Kersten wrote: Mr Khan, your voice matters. Please use it. Your office matters. Please act.

Issue a public statement urgently, wrote Tirana Hassan, Executive Director of the Human Rights Watch to Khan.

Speak up and issue a formal statement, urged human rights organisations.

The Silence of the ICC Prosecutor is not the title of a new film and a sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, the latter title having been said to metaphorically represent the innocent victims in the film.

The Silence of the ICC Prosecutor is “the silence emanating from the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan”, which is growing louder by the hour.