Forwarded from Russian Embassy in South Africa
✍️ From the article “Lost Illusions, or How the International Criminal Courthas become a legal nonentity” by Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman, Security Council of the Russian Federation, PhD in law
🔹 The world keeps changing, and not always for the better. We have witnessed the rapid degradation of many supranational legal structures, which have fallen victim to their dependence on the will, funding and values of the so-called collective West. This is true, for instance, for the International Criminal Court (the Hague Criminal Court).
🔹 As of February 2025, 125 states are parties to the Rome Statute (in the UN there are 193 members). Despite their number, the ICC does not represent the international community of states as a whole and does not act in its name. Three out of five permanent members of the UN Security Council are not parties to it (Russia, China and the USA), along with industrialised and densely populated Asian countries (India, Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia), many Arab countries.
🔹 It is no coincidence that former Chair of the African Union Commission Jean Ping told journalists that the Court is a toy of declining imperial powers. Opinions spread that apparently the ICC was only interested in prosecuting Africans who confronted the Western influence, and used Africa as a laboratory for testing international criminal justice.
🔹 Yet it was in terms of the arrest warrants issued for heads of sovereign states that the ICC reached the pinnacle of nonsense and disutility, including Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in respect of the situation in Ukraine. Passing such decisions the ICC officials were well aware of the fact that they would never bring any practical result, saving propaganda consequences obviously in the interests of the same Anglo-Saxon world.
🔹 Unfortunately, at this point we need to recognise [ICC’s] total inefficiency in performing its main task – bringing to liability all those guilty of genocide, aggression, war crimes, those who escaped punishment under national law. All of them, including citizens of Western countries and NATO member states. Of course, it is doubtful that the Hague Criminal Court in its present form and role will make efforts to this end. That is why it shall sink into oblivion.
🔹It seems entirely possible to develop on the regional level (for instance, in the framework of BRICS) a concept of establishing an international legal body as an alternative to the Hague Criminal Court. This new judicial body in BRICS could reiterate the common commitment of its member states to the UN Charter principles, including the principles of immunity of heads of sovereign states from any foreign jurisdiction and non-interference into internal affairs of the states, including by way of unlawful foreign instructing of opposition leaders.
Read in full
#ICC #InternationalCriminalCourt #neocolonialism #StopColonialism
🔹 The world keeps changing, and not always for the better. We have witnessed the rapid degradation of many supranational legal structures, which have fallen victim to their dependence on the will, funding and values of the so-called collective West. This is true, for instance, for the International Criminal Court (the Hague Criminal Court).
🔹 As of February 2025, 125 states are parties to the Rome Statute (in the UN there are 193 members). Despite their number, the ICC does not represent the international community of states as a whole and does not act in its name. Three out of five permanent members of the UN Security Council are not parties to it (Russia, China and the USA), along with industrialised and densely populated Asian countries (India, Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia), many Arab countries.
🔹 It is no coincidence that former Chair of the African Union Commission Jean Ping told journalists that the Court is a toy of declining imperial powers. Opinions spread that apparently the ICC was only interested in prosecuting Africans who confronted the Western influence, and used Africa as a laboratory for testing international criminal justice.
🔹 Yet it was in terms of the arrest warrants issued for heads of sovereign states that the ICC reached the pinnacle of nonsense and disutility, including Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in respect of the situation in Ukraine. Passing such decisions the ICC officials were well aware of the fact that they would never bring any practical result, saving propaganda consequences obviously in the interests of the same Anglo-Saxon world.
🔹 Unfortunately, at this point we need to recognise [ICC’s] total inefficiency in performing its main task – bringing to liability all those guilty of genocide, aggression, war crimes, those who escaped punishment under national law. All of them, including citizens of Western countries and NATO member states. Of course, it is doubtful that the Hague Criminal Court in its present form and role will make efforts to this end. That is why it shall sink into oblivion.
🔹It seems entirely possible to develop on the regional level (for instance, in the framework of BRICS) a concept of establishing an international legal body as an alternative to the Hague Criminal Court. This new judicial body in BRICS could reiterate the common commitment of its member states to the UN Charter principles, including the principles of immunity of heads of sovereign states from any foreign jurisdiction and non-interference into internal affairs of the states, including by way of unlawful foreign instructing of opposition leaders.
Read in full
#ICC #InternationalCriminalCourt #neocolonialism #StopColonialism
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
🗓 On December 18, building on the UN General Assembly resolution 80/106 “International Day against Colonialism in All Its Forms and Manifestations”, adopted on December 5 at the initiative of the Group of Friends in Defence of the UN Charter with Russia’s participation, a plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly was held to mark the 65th anniversary of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.
Our country played a key role in supporting the national liberation movements of colonial peoples. The Victory of the Soviet Union over German Nazism and Japanese militarism inspired patriotic forces resisting colonial oppression and triggered a powerful surge of liberation movements worldwide. The dedicated efforts of Soviet diplomacy, aimed at dismantling the colonial system, ensured the adoption on December 14, 1960, during the 15th Session of the UN General Assembly, of resolution 1514, which enshrined this historic Declaration.
The document became one of the most significant achievements of the UN. At the time, it freed nearly one third of the world’s population from colonial domination and led to the emergence of dozens of new states across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania.
Our country provided newly independent states with political and material support, helped them defend their sovereignty, and assisted in rebuilding national economies undermined by decades of colonial exploitation. We actively contributed to the restoration of infrastructure, the establishment of state institutions, education systems and training of national personnel, and delivered substantial humanitarian assistance.
❗️ The colonial era, which is considered de jure concluded with the adoption of the Declaration, de facto remains unresolved. 17 territories worldwide still lack sovereignty or remain directly dependent on administering metropolitan states. Even after the formal liberation of dependent territories, former colonial powers have not abandoned practices of exploitation, continuing to draw resources from previously subordinated countries to sustain their own development and claims to global dominance. This includes the persistence of unequal relations, through which natural, economic, intellectual and other resources are extracted under various pretexts.
Today, with Russia's active support, a broad front of Global Majority states is taking shape, determined to put an end to the remnants of the shameful colonial era that impede the emergence of a fair and equitable multipolar global architecture. An important role in this effort is played by the Group of Friends in Defence of the UN Charter.
🤝 Russia will continue, together with like-minded partners, to consolidate efforts aimed at overcoming diktat and ensuring the right of peoples to independent development, grounded in cultural and civilisational identity and traditional values.
#StopColonialism
Our country played a key role in supporting the national liberation movements of colonial peoples. The Victory of the Soviet Union over German Nazism and Japanese militarism inspired patriotic forces resisting colonial oppression and triggered a powerful surge of liberation movements worldwide. The dedicated efforts of Soviet diplomacy, aimed at dismantling the colonial system, ensured the adoption on December 14, 1960, during the 15th Session of the UN General Assembly, of resolution 1514, which enshrined this historic Declaration.
The document became one of the most significant achievements of the UN. At the time, it freed nearly one third of the world’s population from colonial domination and led to the emergence of dozens of new states across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania.
Our country provided newly independent states with political and material support, helped them defend their sovereignty, and assisted in rebuilding national economies undermined by decades of colonial exploitation. We actively contributed to the restoration of infrastructure, the establishment of state institutions, education systems and training of national personnel, and delivered substantial humanitarian assistance.
❗️ The colonial era, which is considered de jure concluded with the adoption of the Declaration, de facto remains unresolved. 17 territories worldwide still lack sovereignty or remain directly dependent on administering metropolitan states. Even after the formal liberation of dependent territories, former colonial powers have not abandoned practices of exploitation, continuing to draw resources from previously subordinated countries to sustain their own development and claims to global dominance. This includes the persistence of unequal relations, through which natural, economic, intellectual and other resources are extracted under various pretexts.
Today, with Russia's active support, a broad front of Global Majority states is taking shape, determined to put an end to the remnants of the shameful colonial era that impede the emergence of a fair and equitable multipolar global architecture. An important role in this effort is played by the Group of Friends in Defence of the UN Charter.
🤝 Russia will continue, together with like-minded partners, to consolidate efforts aimed at overcoming diktat and ensuring the right of peoples to independent development, grounded in cultural and civilisational identity and traditional values.
#StopColonialism
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Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
🎙 Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's answer to a media question regarding the practice of applying unilateral coercive measures (December 26, 2025)
❓ Question: How would you comment on the differences in approaches between the “collective West” and the Global Majority to the use of unilateral coercive measures in contemporary international relations?
💬 Maria Zakharova: This practice runs counter to the UN Charter, which vests the exclusive prerogative to impose measures of this nature in the UN Security Council, and only in cases involving threats to peace and security.
In this context, the use of unilateral coercive measures (UCMs) constitutes an encroachment on the unique powers of the UN Security Council. It is well known that the “collective West” routinely resorts to this practice, most often driven by geopolitical considerations.
UCMs represent a serious obstacle to the formation of a just and equitable polycentric world order.
They serve as one of the main instruments of the neocolonial policy of the “collective West”, the goal of which is evident – to preserve its slipping dominance, deprive the countries of the Global Majority of their right to an independent political choice, and slow down their economic, technological and industrial development.
Attempts by the initiators of UCMs to portray them as a “peaceful means of dispute settlement” do not withstand criticism. It is well known that, by hindering the full-fledged socio-economic development of the countries of the Global South and East, unilateral coercive measures undermine efforts to resolve crisis situations. Their indiscriminate nature violates fundamental human rights and freedoms, first and foremost affecting the most vulnerable segments of the population – a fact repeatedly condemned in resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council.
At the forefront of efforts to counter UCMs within the United Nations stands the Group of Friends in Defence of the UN Charter, which includes the Russian Fededation.
Among the Group’s unquestionable achievements in this area is the adoption, at its initiative, of an entire package of UN General Assembly documents, including Resolution 78/329, which shifted the General Assembly debates on unilateral coercive measures from a three-year to a two-year cycle, as well as Resolution 79/293, adopted in June this year, which proclaimed December 4 as the International Day against Unilateral Coercive Measures.
It is important that the Group’s steps to counter this unlawful practice are part of a broader anti-neocolonial front. It was at the Group’s initiative that the UN General Assembly adopted the principled Resolutions 79/115, “Eradication of colonialism in all its forms and manifestations”, and 80/106, which proclaimed December 14 as the International Day against Colonialism in all its forms and manifestations.
❗️ We are confident that in a truly just multipolar architecture of international relations – which we all aspire to build – there is no place for coercion or neocolonial hegemony. Together with our partners – responsible members of the Global Majority – we will continue the fight against all remnants of the shameful colonial era.
#StopColonialism
❓ Question: How would you comment on the differences in approaches between the “collective West” and the Global Majority to the use of unilateral coercive measures in contemporary international relations?
💬 Maria Zakharova: This practice runs counter to the UN Charter, which vests the exclusive prerogative to impose measures of this nature in the UN Security Council, and only in cases involving threats to peace and security.
In this context, the use of unilateral coercive measures (UCMs) constitutes an encroachment on the unique powers of the UN Security Council. It is well known that the “collective West” routinely resorts to this practice, most often driven by geopolitical considerations.
UCMs represent a serious obstacle to the formation of a just and equitable polycentric world order.
They serve as one of the main instruments of the neocolonial policy of the “collective West”, the goal of which is evident – to preserve its slipping dominance, deprive the countries of the Global Majority of their right to an independent political choice, and slow down their economic, technological and industrial development.
Attempts by the initiators of UCMs to portray them as a “peaceful means of dispute settlement” do not withstand criticism. It is well known that, by hindering the full-fledged socio-economic development of the countries of the Global South and East, unilateral coercive measures undermine efforts to resolve crisis situations. Their indiscriminate nature violates fundamental human rights and freedoms, first and foremost affecting the most vulnerable segments of the population – a fact repeatedly condemned in resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council.
At the forefront of efforts to counter UCMs within the United Nations stands the Group of Friends in Defence of the UN Charter, which includes the Russian Fededation.
Among the Group’s unquestionable achievements in this area is the adoption, at its initiative, of an entire package of UN General Assembly documents, including Resolution 78/329, which shifted the General Assembly debates on unilateral coercive measures from a three-year to a two-year cycle, as well as Resolution 79/293, adopted in June this year, which proclaimed December 4 as the International Day against Unilateral Coercive Measures.
It is important that the Group’s steps to counter this unlawful practice are part of a broader anti-neocolonial front. It was at the Group’s initiative that the UN General Assembly adopted the principled Resolutions 79/115, “Eradication of colonialism in all its forms and manifestations”, and 80/106, which proclaimed December 14 as the International Day against Colonialism in all its forms and manifestations.
❗️ We are confident that in a truly just multipolar architecture of international relations – which we all aspire to build – there is no place for coercion or neocolonial hegemony. Together with our partners – responsible members of the Global Majority – we will continue the fight against all remnants of the shameful colonial era.
#StopColonialism
👍3