Despite growing non-accession, ICC deserves wide support

THE International Criminal Court (ICC) - which prosecutes cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity - has been taking some hard body blows lately. Human rights proponents fear the situation may lead to its unravelling.

The latest country to "unsign" is Russia. President Valdimir Putin's decision comes in the wake of decisions by South Africa, Gambia and Burundi to remove themselves from the jurisdiction of the ICC. Broadly speaking, the court can only act in countries that have acceded to the 1998 Rome Statute. Russia - which was a signatory to the statute that created the court but had not ratified it - now says that the ICC has "failed to meet expectations to become a truly independent authoritative international tribunal". Moscow further points out that there have been only a handful of successful prosecutions.

But those who excoriate Mr Putin seem to suffer from collective amnesia. Truth be told, Russia is emulating the United States' example in 2002 when then US president George W Bush also "unsigned" the statute just as he was planning the invasion and occupation of Iraq the following year. Just before his Iraqi adventure, Mr Bush conveniently discovered that membership of such a court would erode America's national sovereignty. Mr Putin might be concerned about the court's reaction to Russia's activities in Ukraine, or possibly in Syria.