The ICC was established in 2002 by the Rome statute, with the aim of ending impunity for the most serious crimes, such as crimes against humanity. It is investigating a dozen conflicts and has issued arrest warrants for 30 big-time defendants who are still at large. Its fugitives include Vladimir Putin and Binyamin Netanyahu.
Many powerful countries, including America, China, India, Israel, Russia and Turkey, refused to join the court or actively opposed it. Donald Trump's administration has sanctioned the ICC's chief prosecutor and four of its judges.
When drafting the Rome statute, negotiators tried to balance respecting immunity for heads of state, a long-standing principle of international law, with ending impunity for tyrants. The compromise was that signatories must waive immunity for their own leaders and hand them over if indicted, but respect the immunity of leaders of non-signatory countries.
In 2019 the court broke its own rule. Jordan had failed to arrest Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president. The ICC ruled that its members should arrest him despite his immunity. The judgment was criticised as dangerous and unwise. Countries hostile to the court grew more so, and even allies grew uncomfortable. After the court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, France, Germany and Italy all cast doubt over whether they would arrest him, citing head-of-government immunity.
The ICC cannot try the crime of aggression—the foundational charge underlying Russia's invasion of Ukraine—because Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute. Ukraine has proposed a separate special tribunal for the crime of aggression, but critics doubt it can overcome the problem of head-of-state immunity. Vladimir Putin has flouted his ICC arrest warrant by visiting several foreign capitals, including Ulaanbaatar and Dushanbe, without consequence.
In its history the ICC has convicted only 13 defendants; the Yugoslavia tribunal, by comparison, sentenced 93. The court's one big fish currently on trial is Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines' former president. Italy sent a wanted warlord home to Libya rather than hand him over. Viktor Orban, Hungary's prime minister, withdrew from the court's founding treaty rather than honour its arrest warrant for Binyamin Netanyahu.
Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on nine ICC staff members. Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor, is on leave owing to allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denies. The courtroom where Slobodan Milosevic once stood trial for genocide was closed in September 2025; remaining hearings were moved to a "modified conference room"—a downgrade emblematic of international criminal justice's declining prestige. A tribunal set up to prosecute the assassination of Rafic Hariri, a former Lebanese prime minister, shut down in 2023 for want of funds.
The ICC has had some success in prosecuting malefactors without friends on the UN Security Council, from Congolese warlords to Sahelian jihadists.
Etiquette is for those with no breeding; fashion for those with no taste.