- Ilhan Omar is contacting for the US to be a part of the Global Criminal Court docket amid the war in Ukraine.
- Biden has termed for a war crimes investigation into Putin, but the US is not a member of the court docket.
- “Our refusal to be a part of the courtroom is antithetical to our dedication to human rights,” stated Omar.
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota is contacting for the United States to be a part of the International Legal Court docket as calls mature for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be experimented with as a war felony amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We are in the firm of countries these as Iran, Sudan, China, and, sure, Russia as 1 of quite a few nations that have refused to indicator onto this bedrock of international law,” wrote Omar in a Washington Publish op-ed on Wednesday. “If we oppose investigations into international locations, like our very own, that have not joined the ICC, how can we assistance an investigation into Russia, another nation that hasn’t joined the courtroom?”
Omar launched a resolution on Thursday calling for the United States to sign up for the international overall body, as very well as a bill to repeal the 2002 “Hague Invasion Act” that prohibits the US governing administration from cooperating with the court.
The two steps are co-sponsored by a handful fellow progressive Democrats, which includes Reps. Jamaal Bowman of New York, Cori Bush of Missouri, Sara Jacobs and Barbara Lee of California, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
The resolution follows revelations of alleged atrocities fully commited by Russian forces in Ukraine, together with the slaughter of civilians in Bucha, a town outdoors of Kyiv. That led President Joe Biden to recommend that Putin should really encounter a official trial.
“You noticed what occurred in Bucha,” Biden informed reporters this month. “He is a war prison. But we have to assemble the information.”
Omar, who arrived to the US as a refugee from Somalia, wrote that the continued studies of atrocities “evokes a traumatic past” for her, and that she remembers “watching armed militias go by my family’s window, listening to bombs go off exterior our doorways and asking yourself if our property was up coming” as an 8-12 months-outdated girl.
“Vladimir Putin and anyone liable must be held accountable,” Omar stated in a statement saying the resolution. “Sadly, the US is not party to the International Prison Court docket, the principal overall body liable for investigating and prosecuting these crimes.”
“Our refusal to join the court is antithetical to our dedication to human legal rights, accountability, and the rule of law,” she extra. “Now is our prospect to lead the struggle towards human legal rights abuses and guidance worldwide felony justice.”
Omar, a lengthy-time progressive critic of American overseas plan, a short while ago informed to Insider that she believes some of her progressive colleagues have “abandoned their rules of getting anti-war” amid the imposition of wide-based sanctions on the Russian inhabitants.
In 1998, the United States was a single of 7 countries — like China, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Qatar, and Yemen — to vote towards the Rome Statute, which founded the court docket in the very first area. President Invoice Clinton then signed the Rome Statute in 2000, but it was never ratified in the Senate.
The United States even sanctioned best ICC officials underneath previous President Donald Trump over an investigation into alleged war crimes by US forces in Afghanistan, which Biden afterwards lifted. Nonetheless, even underneath Biden, the US has reiterated its resistance to cooperating with the court docket.
Presently, just 123 international locations are parties to the Rome Statute, while countries such as the United States, Russia, China, and Iran are not.
“Our absence also lets regimes to commit human legal rights abuses with impunity,” wrote Omar. “If the most highly effective place won’t keep alone accountable to the rule of law, other nations truly feel emboldened to violate it.”
Last month, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina released a resolution in help of Ukraine’s war crimes declare towards Russia in the International Criminal Court docket, a measure that eventually passed.
When questioned at the time by Insider about no matter whether America’s fraught heritage with the court docket could undermine the credibility of that resolution, Graham reported that the courtroom was handy only in particular contexts.
“We have a quite robust rule of legislation procedure in America,” Graham replied. “Nobody’s previously mentioned the regulation. Everybody’s staying investigated. You know, President Trump is getting investigated by many companies.”