In light of Russia’s suspected war crimes in Ukraine, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., urged for the US to join the International Criminal Court, stating that the US’ reluctance is “antithetical to our commitment to human rights.”
Last week, the Minnesota Congresswoman, who fled her home country when she was eight years old to escape the Somali Civil War, introduced bills that would codify the State Department’s Office of Global Criminal Justice and repeal the Hague Invasion Act, which prevents the US from assisting the International Criminal Court.
In a statement, Omar stated, “Like many of us, I have recoiled in horror at stories of killings, targeting of civilians, mass graves, and rapes by Russian forces.” “Unfortunately, the United States is not a party to the International Criminal Court, the principal body responsible for investigating and prosecuting these crimes.”
The Netherlands-based International Criminal Court was established 20 years ago by an international treaty to prosecute war crimes and other serious offenses.
The U.S. has long kept the court at arm’s-length, a position that hardened under the Trump administration.
However, now that President Biden has labeled Putin a “war criminal” and stated that his invasion of Ukraine amounted to “genocide,” Omar and other senators argue that the US should join the ICC.
“Supporting an ICC probe into Russia while opposing the court’s very existence as a non-member would be staggeringly hypocritical,” Omar told Insider.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has launched an inquiry into war crimes in Ukraine, but Russia, like the US, is not a member of the court.
Satellite photographs and journalists cataloged the terrible mass graves and killed civilians left behind as Russian soldiers withdrew from Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.
Satellite photographs and journalists cataloged the terrible mass graves and killed civilians left behind as Russian soldiers withdrew from Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital