Foreign Minister Baerbock has urgently accused the kidnapping of children from Ukraine as a means of Russia’s war of aggression. Germany has a special responsibility.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has described Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine as a “primal crime” and has demanded that everything be done to hold the Russian president accountable. One experiences that Putin does not stop at the weakest people, “the children, but includes them in his war of annihilation in a brutal way,” she said in New York at the ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the founding of the International Criminal Court ( ICC).
Baerbock accused Putin of deliberately having children abducted and robbed of their identities so that their parents would find it as difficult as possible to bring them back. That’s why she says it’s “so important, especially on the 25th anniversary of the ICC, that we clearly state that we have a loophole in international law.”
Ironically, “in the case of the original crime, the aggressive war,” international criminal law has a gap in which the heads of state and government who waged aggressive wars cannot all be charged. The ceremony was “also an order to further develop international criminal law. Because nobody in the 21st century can wage aggressive wars and go unpunished.”
Baerbock: To do nothing would be wrong
In her speech, Baerbock said against the background of the current lack of majorities for a reform of the Rome Statute as the legal basis for the ICC: “We have a responsibility to join forces and find ways to close the gap in accountability for the original crime (. ..) close.”
She added: “To do nothing, not to try, that would be wrong. Because if we don’t react, the international community’s response to Russia’s aggression is impunity.” Then the world will be “a place where all states will live in fear of a bigger neighbor”.
Foreign Minister: “Germany has a special responsibility”
Baerbock went into detail about the Nazi crimes in World War II. “My country, Germany, has waged inhuman wars of aggression and committed the most atrocious genocide that has killed millions,” she said. “That’s why we have a special responsibility to do our part to ensure that crimes like this never happen again.”
In March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Putin and Russia’s child rights commissioner Maria Lvowa-Belowa for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. They are allegedly responsible for the deportation of Ukrainian children and minors from occupied territories to Russia. In this context, Moscow speaks of evacuations.
Baerbock praised the ICC’s March 2023 arrest warrant against Putin as an important sign. He “underlines that this brutal war of aggression is being waged first and foremost against the weakest and that the international community is particularly listening to the weakest, children first of all”.
The move has meant that Putin has not traveled to any country that has ratified the court’s statute. “And it also made it clear that international criminal law works,” said the Federal Foreign Minister. “Peace through justice. That is the strength that the international community is holding against Russia’s brutal war of aggression,” she said.
During a visit to the court’s headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, in January, Baerbock had already proposed changing its legal basis – the Rome Statute – so that the offense of aggressive war could also be prosecuted without restriction. It should be sufficient if the victim state of an aggression falls under the jurisdiction of the court. Currently, only the UN Security Council can refer the case to the court, as neither Russia nor Ukraine are contracting parties. As a permanent member, however, Russia has a right of veto in the Security Council, so it is highly unlikely that such a case will occur.
Is there a special tribunal for Russia’s crimes of aggression?
Baerbock also supports the proposal to hold the Russian leadership accountable for the aggressive war against Ukraine by means of a special tribunal. Such a tribunal should be based on Ukrainian law.
International elements could include a location abroad, international judges and prosecutors, and a supporting UN General Assembly resolution. According to the federal government, the German position is shared by the other G7 countries and numerous EU members. France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the USA and Great Britain also belong to the G7 round of economically strong democracies.
A summit of the Brics countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in South Africa on August 22-24 is eagerly awaited following the ICC’s issuance of the arrest warrant for Putin on war crimes charges. If Putin arrives, he could be arrested.