Kazakhstan has not signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and its effect does not apply to the republic, TASS reported citing official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, Aibek Smadiyarov.
"We have not signed or ratified the Rome Statute. The statute does not apply to Kazakhstan, and we have no obligations under it," he said.
On March 17, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova on charges of "illegal deportation" of Ukrainian children. Commenting on this decision, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov noted that Moscow does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC. In turn, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, speaking about the information received from The Hague, said that the decisions of the ICC have no meaning for Russia, and possible arrest warrants are legally void.
The ICC was established under the 1998 Rome Statute. Currently, 123 countries are participating in the international treaty. Non-parties to the statute include Russia (signed but not ratified), the United States (signed but later withdrew), and China (did not sign the statute). In 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree according to which Russia would not become a member of the ICC. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, this court "did not justify the hopes placed on it and did not become a truly independent body of international justice."
CentralasianLIGHT.org
April 5, 2023