Analyzing the Guterres–Putin Meeting from the International Law Perspective: Putting Aside the Emotions, the Secretary-General Allegedly Violated the UN-ICC Relationship Agreement

On the twenty fourth of October, whereas the President of the ICC expressed their “excessive appreciation” for the robust cooperative relations with the UN, commemorating the “UN Day”, one thing much more telling about UN-ICC relationships occurred 3000 km from The Hague in Kazan, Russia. The UN Secretary-Normal, António Guterres, smiling and bowing his head, shook palms with the particular person the ICC seeks to arrest: Vladimir Putin. Whereas worldwide media highlighted the ethical controversy of the assembly, which epitomizes the disrespect for the Ukrainian youngsters transferred and deported, for which Putin is needed, placing apart emotions, a authorized evaluation means that Guterres’s actions might have additionally violated UN obligations towards the ICC.

Authorized Framework for UN Conferences with ICC Suspects

Although the ICC is unbiased from the UN, the 2 keep shut ties. The Rome Statute, which established the ICC, was negotiated below UN auspices. From its outset, the Rome Statute reaffirms the Functions and Rules of the UN Constitution. Most significantly, Article 2 of it establishes that “The Court docket shall be introduced into relationship with the United Nations by means of an settlement.”

The Relationship Settlement between the UN and the ICC entered into drive in 2004. Underneath Article 3 of it, the UN and the ICC are to cooperate intently and coordinate their actions. In 2016, the UN issued its “Finest Practices Guide for UN – ICC Cooperation,” offering the UN representatives with sensible steering in implementing the Relationship Settlement. The Guide has a separate part on “Important contact coverage,” in response to which:

The United Nations has a basic obligation to chorus from any motion that will frustrate the actions of the Court docket and its varied organs, together with the Prosecutor, or undermine the authority of their choices.  

In keeping with this basic obligation, the Secretary‐Normal issued pointers in April 2013 on contact between UN officers and individuals who’re the topic of arrest warrants […] issued by the Worldwide Felony Court docket.

The UN itself acknowledged the foundations on the non-essential contacts coverage, together with the 2013 Steering, to be the continuation of the UN obligations below the 2004 Relationship Settlement and, thus, binding. This aligns with the UN member states’ stances (see, as an illustration, the Argentinian consultant stressing that “Argentina […] has all the time maintained that the Secretary-Normal should make sure the strict implementation of the rules”; UK’s consultant urging “the Secretariat to make sure full compliance with it [policy on non-essential contact]”; and Luxembourg’s consultant stressing that these directives “have to be strictly noticed”).

Underneath the Steering, typically, there must be no conferences between UN officers and ICC suspects. The only exception applies to these conferences “which are strictly required for finishing up important United Nations mandated actions.” The Steering additionally supplies that, when contact is completely vital, each try must be made to work together with people of the identical group or occasion who are usually not needed by the ICC. The 2016 UN Guide additionally requires the UN Workplace of Authorized Affairs to tell the ICC’s Prosecutor and the President of the ASP about any scheduled conferences with the ICC suspects upfront.

On this joint assertion, Fact Hounds and Ukrainian NGOs analyzed the UN’s non-essential contacts coverage and proved that there was no want, or a minimum of no substantiation, for a Gueterres–Putin assembly. The private assembly of Mr. Guterres with Mr. Putin and their dialogue of the warfare in Ukraine doesn’t strengthen the rule of regulation to carry accountability and justice, within the public notion, undermines the authority of the ICC’s arrest warrant, and signifies the normalization of contacts with potential warfare criminals on the worldwide stage. The UN’s temporary justification for the Guterres–Putin assembly cited ‘commonplace follow’ at conferences with giant numbers of necessary Member States with out addressing the precise guidelines within the Relationship Settlement, UN Steering, and 2016 Guide.

Furthermore, the Steering unequivocally establishes that “there must be no ceremonial conferences with such individuals and commonplace courtesy calls shouldn’t be paid on them. The identical holds true of receptions, picture alternatives […].” As Sergey Vasiliev famous: “What grand humanitarian technique might have guided the UNSG to shake the hand of Putin and bro-hug Lukashenka?” (hyperlinks added).

The twenty fourth of October was a newsworthy day. The ICC discovered that Mongolia did not cooperate in arresting Vladimir Putin. Nevertheless, Guterres’s personal reckless strategy doesn’t contribute to a extra critical perspective of States towards cooperation below ICC arrest warrants. The specified “strengthening the rule of regulation on the worldwide stage and bringing accountability and justice for all,” to make use of the phrases of the ICC’s President, could also be undermined if the representatives of the worldwide organizations and our bodies, who must be the exemplars of the rule of regulation, themselves disregard the written guidelines.

UN’s Repeated Disregard for the Non-Important Contact Coverage

Guterres’s assembly with Putin was not an remoted incident. Within the Darfur battle, UN officers additionally engaged with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir regardless of an ICC warrant. To exemplify, one UN envoy engaged with President Bashir frequently, whereas the ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda raised issues about Deputy Secretary-Normal Jan Eliasson’s lengthy assembly with Mr. al-Bashir, emphasizing that such contacts should meet a rigorous commonplace of necessity. Absent this commonplace, interactions with ICC suspects might lend legitimacy to their actions and danger public notion that the UN undermines the ICC’s authority:

“[…] to dispel misperceptions about United Nations engagements with indictees, the Group would possibly want, to the extent that it’s potential, to make public all its contacts with these topic to ICC warrants of arrest, together with, so far as is important, offering explanations of why such contacts are deemed to have been strictly required for finishing up important United Nations-mandated duties” (emphases added)

Aside from the al-Bashir saga, in Might 2023, the UN Secretary-Normal’s Particular Consultant for Youngsters and Armed Battle, Virginia Gamba, visited Moscow to fulfill with one other ICC suspect: Russian Commissioner on Youngsters’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova.

Ryan Goodman, a founding co-editor-in-chief of Simply Safety, aptly famous that the assembly was sharply criticized by human rights teams (Human Rights Watch and Amnesty Worldwide officers) and authorized students (Kim Thuy Seelinger, Mark Kersten, Kevin Jon Heller, Claus Kress, Todd Buchwald). As an example, Claus Kress emphasised: “The quite obscure and evasive response by the U.N. spokesperson doesn’t give one the reassurance that the strict standards set out within the Steering for a direct contact below distinctive circumstances had been rigorously thought of. The truth is, the spokesperson doesn’t even seem to have particularly referred to the Steering regardless of its apparent particular relevance within the case at hand.” (hyperlink added)

E. Jimenez known as the Secretary-Normal “to clarify the reasoning behind approving this alleged assembly.” Nevertheless, the Secretary-Normal’s 2023 report on the UN-ICC relationship fails to say the Gamba–Lvova-Belova assembly, not to mention justify its want. This may increasingly go away public observers with a way that the UN doesn’t take these obligations rigorously. The truth is, the UN’s annual stories on its relationship with the ICC have constantly echoed a generic assertion on compliance with out detailing particular contacts with ICC suspects (see para 5 of 2024, 2023, and 2022 stories, the similar paras being utilized in 2020 and 2021 besides that the final sentence is absent).

The problematic facet will not be restricted to the conferences alone however expands to the truth that UN representatives don’t really feel the necessity to justify and substantiate such visits. As a substitute of being open to dialogue and offering correct justifications, UN representatives disguise behind some basic remarks on compliance.

Concerns for Adherence and Transparency

The latest assembly between UN Secretary-Normal Guterres and President Putin highlights advanced points associated to adherence to the non-essential contacts coverage. The Secretary-Normal might undertake a extra complete strategy to reporting to the Normal Meeting on the UN-ICC relationship, making certain that any conferences with the ICC suspects are completely analyzed and addressed within the report. Such substantiation and transparency would uphold institutional credibility and help the targets of worldwide justice.