{"id":58708,"date":"2025-12-16T01:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T22:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=58708"},"modified":"2025-12-16T01:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T22:17:08","slug":"welcome-to-the-age-of-impunity-where-the-international-criminal-courts-pursuit-of-atrocity-crimes-becomes-a-rare-achievement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/welcome-to-the-age-of-impunity-where-the-international-criminal-courts-pursuit-of-atrocity-crimes-becomes-a-rare-achievement\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the Age of Impunity \u2013 Where the International Criminal Court\u2019s Pursuit of Atrocity Crimes Becomes a Rare Achievement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simon Tisdall<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was a rare success for international justice at a time when courts are struggling against a rising tide of official lawlessness. Last week, the International Criminal Court sentenced Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, a senior commander of the notorious, government-backed Janjaweed militia, to 20 years in prison after convicting him on 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for atrocities committed in Sudan\u2019s Darfur region between 2003 and 2005.<\/p>\n

Despite the involvement of hundreds of militiamen, Abd-Al-Rahman\u2014better known as Ali Kushayb\u2014is the first individual ever convicted for Darfur\u2019s atrocities, a region that has once again descended into horrific violence amid Sudan\u2019s ongoing civil war. Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, and Vladimir Putin in Russia: this unpalatable trio stand accused, to varying degrees, of atrocities by the ICC, the United Nations and human rights organisations. Each is alleged to have overseen the deliberate killing, abuse or mass abduction of non-combatant civilians. All deny wrongdoing, insisting their actions are justified regardless of what the law, public opinion or even basic moral standards may say. All believe\u2014arrogantly\u2014that they are beyond accountability.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu is fighting on multiple fronts to save his political career and avoid prison. Like Gaza, his personal reputation lies in ruins. Israel\u2019s prime minister is seeking to halt his long-running fraud and bribery trial in a Jerusalem court on the grounds of \u201cnational interest\u201d. He says he would prefer to prove his innocence but, in a supposed spirit of sacrifice to heal divisions, is prepared to accept a pardon.<\/p>\n

The man\u2019s audacity is breathtaking. Netanyahu has shamelessly exploited those very divisions to cling to power. Emboldened, he is also resisting a full, independent inquiry into the catastrophic security failures that preceded Hamas\u2019s 7 October 2023 attacks. Opposition politicians, including Avigdor Lieberman, accuse him of orchestrating a \u201cwhitewash\u201d to save himself.<\/p>\n

Yet Netanyahu\u2019s disgraceful attempt to evade accountability before the ICC over Gaza\u2014where his government stands accused of genocide\u2014most starkly illustrates the corrosive effect of official impunity. Instead of defending himself in court, he hides behind Donald Trump in Washington or stays at home to avoid arrest. Meanwhile, in Gaza, starving children continue to suffer\u2014on his orders.<\/p>\n

As for Hegseth, the new US defence secretary appears to have convinced himself that killing dozens of unidentified people aboard boats in the Caribbean, on the basis of unproven suspicions of drug trafficking, is both desirable and lawful\u2014not a brutal, unjustified act. Flimsy justifications are offered: the United States claims to possess \u201cintelligence\u201d supporting its allegations and insists the victims belonged to \u201cforeign terrorist organisations\u201d, making them legitimate targets. Judges and lawyers may say what they like; for Hegseth, only one man\u2019s opinion matters.<\/p>\n

Trump and Hegseth believe they can do whatever they want without consequence. When video footage emerged showing survivors of a US strike being deliberately killed in a follow-up attack, some members of Congress belatedly began asking questions. The Pentagon was evasive. Who cares? Not the president. Whatever Hegseth does, \u201cit\u2019s fine with me,\u201d Trump declared last week.<\/p>\n

This is impunity. And this, precisely, is the end of the rule of law. It is a declaration by the world\u2019s most powerful state that it no longer respects the basic rules which\u2014however imperfect\u2014hold human society together. Off the coast of Venezuela, US forces are killing and seizing oil tankers as if they were Somali pirates or Houthi rebels in the Red Sea. Impunity breeds chaos.<\/p>\n

Little wonder, then, that Putin\u2014also wanted by the ICC\u2014believes he can get away with his crimes. Trump even sought to grant Putin immunity from prosecution in his 28-point \u201cpeace plan\u201d for Ukraine. He is also attempting to destroy the ICC through sanctions. What example does that set for the world? And how can Britain and Europe continue to claim that the United States is an ally that shares their values?<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s lawless enforcers, wreaking havoc abroad as at home, are the new Janjaweed. And like Ali Kushayb, Trump, Netanyahu, Putin, Hegseth and their fellow boastful killers must one day be held to account before the law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Simon Tisdall It was a rare success for international justice at a time when courts are struggling against a rising tide of official lawlessness. Last week, the International Criminal Court sentenced Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, a senior commander of the notorious, government-backed Janjaweed militia, to 20 years in prison after convicting him on 27 counts …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58710,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58708\/revisions\/58710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}