URAP Urges ICC To Investigate Xi Jinping After Issuing Putin Arrest Warrant
March 20, 2023
On Friday, March 17, 2023, the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague announced that it issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the basis of war crimes he is accused of committing in Ukraine.
This is the first time that an international court has issued an arrest warrant against a head-of-state of one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
We welcome this encouraging development in the global fight to end impunity for atrocity crimes, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. We are encouraged and grateful that Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly has endorsed this action of the Court and issued a strong statement expressing Canada’s support.
URAP is urging the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to also work to end impunity for atrocity crimes committed by Chinese officials, including Chinese President Xi Jinping. URAP urges the Prosecutor to immediately establish a similar investigation into Xi Jinping and apply the same standard to China as they have Russia.
As numerous governments, parliaments, and civil society organizations have extensively documented, Chinese officials are committing atrocity crimes, including genocide, against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims. The crimes and abuses documented include arbitrary detentions, torture, sexual violence, forced labour, genocide, and medical crimes, including forced sterilization of Uyghur women.
China is not a state party to the Rome Statute, and absent a United Nations Security Council referral, the International Criminal Court only has jurisdiction to investigate crimes committed on the territories of states parties or crimes committed by states parties’ nationals. In the case of China, there is evidence that the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution have occurred, in part, on territories of states parties, as Uyghurs have been forcibly transferred from the territories of Cambodia and Tajikistan back to China. UK Barrister Rodney Dixon KC submitted a communication with evidence to this effect in 2021 and asked the Office of the Prosecutor to open a preliminary examination into these crimes.
We urge the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to take this opportunity to end impunity for crimes committed by a second permanent member of the UN Security Council. We urge Canadian government officials, including Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, to support these initiatives as vehemently as they support those concerning Russia’s aggressive invasion of Ukraine.