PARIS (Dispatches) – France’s claim that the Zionist regime’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu could benefit from immunity from international arrest after a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) has drawn strong criticism from prominent human rights organizations, lawyers and political leaders.
Asked on French radio about the possibility of an arrest in France of the Israeli prime minister, Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot mentioned possible “questions of immunity” for “certain leaders” provided for by the Rome Statute, which created the ICC.
“It is ultimately up to the judicial authority to decide,” Barrot said.
In a statement published, the foreign affairs ministry stated that France would respect its international obligations and fully cooperate with the ICC, but it added that the Rome Statute governing the ICC provided that a state cannot be required to act “in a manner incompatible with its obligations under international law with regard to the immunities of states not party to the ICC”.
“In accordance with the historic friendship that binds France to Israel, two democracies committed to the rule of law and respect for professional and independent justice, France intends to continue to work closely with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other Israeli authorities to achieve peace and security for all in the Middle East,” the statement added.
The Zionist regime is not a signatory to the ICC and has claimed that it cannot be held to account under the Rome Statute.
The Quai d’Orsay added that “such immunities apply to Prime Minister Netanyahu and the other ministers concerned and will have to be taken into consideration if the ICC were to ask us for their arrest and surrender.”
The statement represented a volte-face from the initial French reaction to the ICC’s decision last week to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former war minister Yoav Gallant, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023.
It is the first time a member of the ICC has argued that Netanyahu is covered by immunity as a sitting head of regime because it is not a member of the ICC.
France has never publicly raised the issue of immunity for Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Sudanese head of state Omar al-Bashir - who have been issued arrest warrants by the ICC for, respectively, the war crime of deporting Ukrainian children and crimes against humanity in Darfur - although these countries are not ICC states parties.
For specialists, the French position does not hold up.
“The heads of states do not enjoy immunity before the ICC, period, irrespective of whether they belong to state parties or also to non-party states,” international law professor at Leiden University, Giulia Pinzauti, told MEE last week.
Amnesty International secretary general Agnes Callamard declared on X that France’s statement “runs counter to France’s fundamental obligations as a member state of the ICC”.
“A cornerstone principle of the ICC Statute is that no one is above the law, including heads of state sought for arrest, such as Vladimir Putin or Benjamin Netanyahu. This has been confirmed in a decision by the Court’s Appeals Chamber in jurisprudence which is binding on all member states,” she explained.
“France’s position is deeply problematic. Rather than inferring that those indicted by the ICC may enjoy immunity, France should expressly confirm its acceptance of the unequivocal legal duty under the Rome Statute to carry out arrest warrants, and affirm that all persons subject to ICC arrest warrants will be arrested and surrendered to the Court if they find themselves in France’s jurisdiction,” Callamard stressed.
For the France director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), Benedicte Jeannerod, the French position is “shocking”.