What is International Criminal Court and how it works?

The International Criminal Court said on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in the abductions of children from Ukraine.

What Court Said on Putin?

The court said in a statement that Putin "is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."

It also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children's Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar allegations.

It was the first time it issued a warrant against one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

Can International Community Enforce it?

The court's president, Piotr Hofmanski, said in a video statement that while the ICC's judges have issued the warrants, it will be up to the international community to enforce them. The court has no police force of its own to enforce warrants.

"The ICC is doing its part of work as a court of law," he said. "The judges issued arrest warrants. The execution depends on international cooperation." The chances of a trial of any Russians at the ICC remains extremely unlikely, as Moscow does not recognize the court's jurisdiction- a position it vehemently reaffirmed on Friday.

The ICC said its pre-trial chamber found "reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children."

The court statement said that "there are reasonable grounds to believe that Putin bears individual criminal responsibility" for the child abductions "for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (and) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts.

What is ICC?

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an independent judicial body with jurisdiction over persons charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

60 countries signed the Rome Statute in 1998 after it was opened for signature by the United Nations. The Statute laid the foundation for the establishment of the International Criminal Court in 2002. Its purpose is to investigate and prosecute war criminals.

How it Works?

The Court's founding treaty, called the Rome Statute, grants the ICC jurisdiction over four main crimes, according to the official website.

First, the crime of genocide is characterised by the specific intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group by killing its members or by other means: causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Second, the ICC can prosecute crimes against humanity, which are serious violations committed as part of a large-scale attack against any civilian population. The 15 forms of crimes against humanity listed in the Rome Statute include offences such as murder, rape, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, enslavement - particularly of women and children, sexual slavery, torture, apartheid and deportation.

Third, war crimes which are grave breaches of the Geneva conventions in the context of armed conflict and include, for instance, the use of child soldiers; the killing or torture of persons such as civilians or prisoners of war; intentionally directing attacks against hospitals, historic monuments, or buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes.

Finally, the fourth crime falling within the ICC's jurisdiction is the crime of aggression. It is the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, integrity or independence of another State. The definition of this crime was adopted through amending the Rome Statute at the first Review Conference of the Statute in Kampala, Uganda, in 2010.

The Powers of the ICC

The ICC is only competent to hear a case if:

The country where the offence was committed is a party to the Rome Statute; or

The perpetrator's country of origin is a party to the Rome Statute.

The ICC may only exercise its jurisdiction if the national court is unable or unwilling to do so. The ICC only has jurisdiction over offences committed after the Statute's entry into force on 1 July 2002.

Referring a case to the International Criminal Court

Various parties have the right to refer a case to the ICC:

Any State Party to the Rome Statute, irrespective of any involvement in the alleged offence;
the Prosecutor of the ICC;

The United Nations Security Council

The United Nations Security Council may ask the ICC to defer the investigation of a case for a limited period if it considers that the proceedings would constitute an obstruction to its powers.

Chances of Putin's Arrest

The chances of a trial of any Russians at the ICC remains extremely unlikely, as Moscow does not recognize the court's jurisdiction.

The International Criminal Court (ICC)'s arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes is legally "void" as Kremlin does not recognise the Hague-based court's jurisdiction, Moscow said in a statement on Friday.

"Russia, just like a number of different countries, does not recognise the jurisdiction of this court and so from a legal point of view, the decisions of this court are void," AFP quoted Russia's spokesman Dmitry Peskov as telling reporters. Moscow is not a member of the ICC.

The decisions "have no meaning" for Russia, said Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. "Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it," she said on Telegram.

"Russia does not cooperate with this body and possible 'recipes' for arrest coming from the international court will be legally void as far as we are concerned," she claimed, without referring to the name of the Russian President.

With inputs from PTI and ICC official website