BUDAPEST: Hungary on Thursday said it will quit the International Criminal Court, just as Prime Minister Viktor Orban hosted his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, whom the tribunal has accused of war crimes in Gaza.
The government announcement to start the year-long withdrawal process came as Orban welcomed Netanyahu in the capital Budapest on his first trip to Europe since 2023.
Netanyahu, who faces an ICC arrest warrant that Hungary said it would not carry out, welcomed his hosts’ “bold and principled” decision to leave the tribunal.
Set up in 2002, the ICC, based in The Hague, seeks to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s gravest crimes when countries are unwilling or unable to do so themselves.
“It’s important for all democracies. It’s important to stand up to this corrupt organization,” Netanyahu told a joint press conference with Orban.
Orban said the ICC was “no longer an impartial court” but a “political court” as shown “most clearly by the decisions on Israel.”
Orban invited Netanyahu last November, a day after the ICC issued the arrest warrant against the Israeli leader for crimes against humanity and war crimes — allegations he fiercely rejects.
Hungary’s government will initiate the ICC withdrawal procedure on Thursday, according to Orban.
A state’s withdrawal takes effect one year after the deposit of the withdrawal’s instrument — usually in the form of a formal letter declaring the pullout — with the UN Secretary General’s office.
The ICC on Thursday insisted Hungary had a “duty” to cooperate with the body.
“The court recalls that Hungary remains under a duty to cooperate with the ICC,” spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said.
Experts say Netanyahu, who is due to stay in Hungary until Sunday, is trying to diminish the impact of the court’s decision, while hoping to drive attention away from tensions at home as he meets like-minded ally Orban.
“His ultimate goal is to regain the ability to travel wherever he wants,” Moshe Klughaft, an international strategic consultant and former adviser to Netanyahu, told AFP.
“At first, he’s flying to places where there’s no risk of arrest, and in doing so, he’s also paving the way to normalize his future travels.”
Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz in February vowed to make sure Netanyahu can visit his country.
The Hungary trip “goes hand in hand with US sanctions against the ICC,” Klughaft said, referring to the punitive measures President Donald Trump imposed in February over what he described as “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.”
Hungary signed the Rome Statute, the international treaty that created the ICC, in 1999 and ratified it two years later during Orban’s first term in office.
The ICC, set up in 2002, has no police of its own and relies on the cooperation of its 125 member states to carry out any arrest warrants.
However, Budapest has not promulgated the associated convention for constitutional reasons and therefore asserts it is not obliged to comply with the decisions of the ICC.
So far only the Burundi and the Philippines have withdrawn from the court.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant over allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes — including starvation as a method of warfare — in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
The war was sparked by the militant Palestinian group’s attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.
Netanyahu’s trip comes as he faces increasing pressure over his government’s attempts to replace both the domestic security chief and attorney general, while expanding the power of politicians over the appointment of judges.
The Israeli prime minister also testified in a probe involving alleged payments from Qatar to some of his senior staff after two of his aides were arrested.
“One of Netanyahu’s methods is controlling the Israeli agenda,” Klughaft said, adding that the Hungary visit gives him a chance to set the conversation for days.
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Hungary announces ICC withdrawal as Israel’s Netanyahu visits
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Hungary announces ICC withdrawal as Israel’s Netanyahu visits
- “It’s important for all democracies. It’s important to stand up to this corrupt organization,” Netanyahu said
- Orban said the ICC was “no longer an impartial court” but a “political court” as shown “most clearly by the decisions on Israel“
First climate migrants arrive in Australia from sinking Tuvalu in South Pacific
SYDNEY: The first climate migrants to leave the remote Pacific island nation of Tuvalu have arrived in Australia, hoping to preserve links to their sinking island home, foreign affairs officials said on Thursday.
More than one-third of Tuvalu’s 11,000 population applied for a climate visa to migrate to Australia, under a deal struck between the two countries two years ago.
The intake is capped at 280 visas annually to prevent a brain drain in the small island nation.
Among the islanders selected in the initial intake of climate migrants is Tuvalu’s first female forklift driver, a dentist, and a pastor focused on preserving their spiritual life thousands of kilometers (miles) from home, Australian government officials said.
Tuvalu, one of the countries at greatest risk from climate change because of rising sea levels, is a group of low-lying atolls scattered across the Pacific between Australia and Hawaii.
Manipua Puafolau, from Tuvalu’s main island of Funafuti, arrived in Australia a fortnight ago. A trainee pastor with the most prominent church in Tuvalu, he plans to live in the small town of Naracoorte in the state of South Australia, where several hundred Pacific Islanders work in seasonal agriculture and meat processing jobs.
“For the people moving to Australia, it is not only for their physical and economic well-being, but also calls for spiritual guidance,” he said in a video released by Australia’s foreign affairs department.
Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo visited the Tuvaluan community in Melton, Melbourne, last month to emphasize the importance of maintaining strong ties and cultural bonds across borders as citizens migrate, Tuvalu officials said.
On Tuvalu’s main atoll of Funafuti, the land is barely wider than the road in many stretches. Families live under thatched roofs, and children play football on the airport runway due to space constraints.
By 2050, NASA scientists project daily tides will submerge half of Funafuti atoll, home to 60 percent of Tuvalu’s residents, where villagers cling to a strip of land as narrow as 20 meters (65 feet). The forecast assumes a one-meter rise in sea levels, while the worst case, double that, would put 90 percent of the country’s main atoll under water.
CLIMATE VISAS OFFER ‘MOBILITY WITH DIGNITY’
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the climate migrants would contribute to Australian society.
The visa offered “mobility with dignity, by providing Tuvaluans the opportunity to live, study and work in Australia as climate impacts worsen,” Wong said in a statement to Reuters.
Support services are being established by Australia to help Tuvaluan families set up in the east coast city of Melbourne, Adelaide in South Australia and in the northern state of Queensland.
Kitai Haulapi, the first female forklift driver in Tuvalu, recently married and will relocate to Melbourne, population five million. In a video released by Australia’s foreign affairs department she says that she hopes to find a job in Australia and continue to contribute to Tuvalu by sending money back to her family.
Dentist Masina Matolu, who has three school-aged children and a seafarer husband, will move with her family to the northern Australian city of Darwin. She plans to work with indigenous communities.
“I can always bring whatever I learn new from Australia back to my home culture, just to help,” she said in a video statement.
More than one-third of Tuvalu’s 11,000 population applied for a climate visa to migrate to Australia, under a deal struck between the two countries two years ago.
The intake is capped at 280 visas annually to prevent a brain drain in the small island nation.
Among the islanders selected in the initial intake of climate migrants is Tuvalu’s first female forklift driver, a dentist, and a pastor focused on preserving their spiritual life thousands of kilometers (miles) from home, Australian government officials said.
Tuvalu, one of the countries at greatest risk from climate change because of rising sea levels, is a group of low-lying atolls scattered across the Pacific between Australia and Hawaii.
Manipua Puafolau, from Tuvalu’s main island of Funafuti, arrived in Australia a fortnight ago. A trainee pastor with the most prominent church in Tuvalu, he plans to live in the small town of Naracoorte in the state of South Australia, where several hundred Pacific Islanders work in seasonal agriculture and meat processing jobs.
“For the people moving to Australia, it is not only for their physical and economic well-being, but also calls for spiritual guidance,” he said in a video released by Australia’s foreign affairs department.
Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo visited the Tuvaluan community in Melton, Melbourne, last month to emphasize the importance of maintaining strong ties and cultural bonds across borders as citizens migrate, Tuvalu officials said.
On Tuvalu’s main atoll of Funafuti, the land is barely wider than the road in many stretches. Families live under thatched roofs, and children play football on the airport runway due to space constraints.
By 2050, NASA scientists project daily tides will submerge half of Funafuti atoll, home to 60 percent of Tuvalu’s residents, where villagers cling to a strip of land as narrow as 20 meters (65 feet). The forecast assumes a one-meter rise in sea levels, while the worst case, double that, would put 90 percent of the country’s main atoll under water.
CLIMATE VISAS OFFER ‘MOBILITY WITH DIGNITY’
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the climate migrants would contribute to Australian society.
The visa offered “mobility with dignity, by providing Tuvaluans the opportunity to live, study and work in Australia as climate impacts worsen,” Wong said in a statement to Reuters.
Support services are being established by Australia to help Tuvaluan families set up in the east coast city of Melbourne, Adelaide in South Australia and in the northern state of Queensland.
Kitai Haulapi, the first female forklift driver in Tuvalu, recently married and will relocate to Melbourne, population five million. In a video released by Australia’s foreign affairs department she says that she hopes to find a job in Australia and continue to contribute to Tuvalu by sending money back to her family.
Dentist Masina Matolu, who has three school-aged children and a seafarer husband, will move with her family to the northern Australian city of Darwin. She plans to work with indigenous communities.
“I can always bring whatever I learn new from Australia back to my home culture, just to help,” she said in a video statement.
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