\n<\/p>\n
Lawmakers in Hungary have voted overwhelmingly for the country to remain a member of the international criminal court, reversing a decision made by the previous government of Viktor Orb\u00e1n.<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s vote came days before the country was poised to become the only EU member state not to recognise the jurisdiction of the global tribunal, which aims to prosecute those accused of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n
In April last year, Orb\u00e1n announced that Hungary would begin the process of pulling out of what he decried as a \u201cpolitical court\u201d. He made the comments while hosting his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, a longtime ally and the subject of an ICC arrest warrant, in Budapest.<\/p>\n
After P\u00e9ter Magyar was elected as prime minister in a landslide victory last month, the new leaderrepeatedly vowed that his government would reverse the withdrawal before it took effect on 2 June.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Magyar\u2019s government submitted a bill to the parliament, setting in motion a fast-tracked procedure that resulted in 133 of the 199 lawmakers voting to back the bill.<\/p>\n
The legislation must now be signed into law by the president, Tam\u00e1s Sulyok, an Orb\u00e1n-era appointee whom Magyar has repeatedly called on to resign.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, the ICC\u2019s legislative body hailed Hungary\u2019s plan to reverse the withdrawal, describing it as \u201cessential\u201d to ensuring accountability for the world\u2019s gravest crimes.<\/p>\n
The U-turn marks a bright moment for the beleaguered institution. Since Donald Trump\u2019s return to power in the US last year, his administration has worked steadily to hobble the Hague-based court, imposing sanctions on 11 of the court\u2019s officials.<\/p>\n
Several of the judges and the chief prosecutor have been left grappling with the fallout, from cancelled credit cards to disappearing Amazon and Google accounts, in what one judge described as a \u201cdirect and flagrant attack\u201d on one of the world\u2019s most prominent courts.<\/p>\n
For weeks, Magyar had made it clear that his Tisza party would work to ensure that Hungary, a founding member of the ICC treaty, would not join the ranks of countries, such as China, Israel, Russia and the US, that refuse to recognise the court\u2019s jurisdiction.<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s legislation framed the decision as one aimed at maintaining global peace and protecting human rights, noting: \u201cIt is essential that those who commit the most serious international crimes be held accountable before an international judicial forum.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reversing the ICC withdrawal would mean that Netanyahu would be arrested if he stepped foot in the country, Magyar told reporters last month, indicating that the end of Orb\u00e1n\u2019s time in power meant Israel had lost one of its staunchest allies in Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that if the country is a member of the international criminal court, and a person who is wanted by the court enters our territory, then that person must be taken into custody,\u201d Magyar said.<\/p>\n
In 2024, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu over allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes \u2013 including starvation as a method of warfare \u2013 in Israel\u2019s war against Hamas in Gaza. His office has rejected the court\u2019s \u201cfalse and absurd\u201d accusations, describing them as fuelled by antisemitism and the politically motivated move of \u201ca biased and discriminatory political body\u201d.<\/p>\n
In July last year, a panel of ICC judges determined that Hungary had failed to comply with its legal obligation to arrest Netanyahu during the visit to Budapest. Noting that the obligation to cooperate had been made sufficiently clear to Hungary, the judges said the \u201cfailure to arrest suspects severely undermines the court\u2019s ability to carry out its mandate\u201d.<\/p>\n
Before the visit, Hungary had not shared any concerns over the arrest warrants with the court, the judges noted. \u201cHungary did not engage with the court before or during Mr Netanyahu\u2019s visit and instead decided to unilaterally withhold cooperation,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lawmakers in Hungary have voted overwhelmingly for the country to remain a member of the international criminal court, reversing a decision made by the previous government of Viktor Orb\u00e1n. Wednesday\u2019s vote came days before the country was poised to become the only EU member state not to recognise the jurisdiction of the global tribunal, which<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[83,7494,18825,11022,2855,414,18639,5478,3665,139],"class_list":{"0":"post-49803","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-decision","9":"tag-hungarian","10":"tag-hungary","11":"tag-icc","12":"tag-member","13":"tag-mps","14":"tag-orban","15":"tag-overturning","16":"tag-remain","17":"tag-vote"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}