Naoero announced last week its intention to quit the International Criminal Court (ICC), heeding United States President Donald Trump’s call for countries to resign from what he described as a “rogue institution.”
Addressing the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Naoero’s President David Adeang said Yaren will formally withdraw from the Rome Statute due to its “irrelevance” to his country, formerly known as Nauru.
The Rome Statute is an international treaty governing the ICC, which was established in July 2002.
“A multilateral agency with which we see of increasing irrelevance to the Naoero, namely the International Criminal Court, is one which calls for Naoero to end its participation and to revoke its membership,” Adeang said in his UNGA speech in New York on September 22.
“Before I depart New York, Naoero will be depositing our instruments of withdrawal with the Rome Statute repository.”
Once finalised, Naoero will join the Philippines and Burundi among countries that have left the ICC.
But the South Pacific island country will have to wait one year before the withdrawal takes effect.
Several other countries announced their withdrawal from the court last year, including Venezuela, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali.
Trump’s tirade against ICC
Adeang’s announcement came on the heels of Trump’s tirade against the 125-member ICC, which the US is not a party to.
He told the UNGA on the same day that Washington “will never allow US service members or anyone else to be investigated in trials by an anti-American tribunal with no jurisdiction over us.”
“I call on all members to officially resign from this rogue institution immediately,” added the US leader, who also called the ICC a body with an “evil group of people”.
Only Naoero followed Trump’s call at the UNGA, while European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, and Ireland, expressed support for the ICC, as did Japan.
Washington welcomed Yaren’s decision two days later, with US Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Michael DeSombre saying Naoero now “joins a growing number of nations standing up for their sovereignty against the ICC’s illegitimate overreach.”
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Regrettable decision
The ICC, in turn, said it regrets Naoero’s decision to withdraw from the Hague-based court.
“Decisions by States Parties to disengage from the Rome Statute risk undermining the collective pursuit of justice and weakening global efforts to end impunity,” the Presidency of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute, the ICC’s management and legislative body, said in a statement dated September 30.
“The ICC stands at the heart of the international system of accountability, and its effectiveness depends on sustained and unequivocal support from the international community. The pursuit of justice is strengthened through unity of purpose.”
It also called on Naoero to remain committed to its obligations as a party to the Rome Statute.
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