17:03, 7 September 2023
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. Member of Parliament Sargis Khandanyan representing the ruling Civil Contract party has said that parliament ought to ratify the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Khandanyan, the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, said that the Rome Statute has been sent to parliament and it must pass through discussions in the faction and the relevant committee within defined timeframes. “As of this moment, there are no reservations in the version sent to parliament. I believe that,indeed, it must be ratified,” Khandanyan told reporters.
He dismissed Moscow’s concerns and request to clarify the move.
“I don’t know what kind of questions they’ve asked Armenia and I don’t know whether or not they’ve already received the answers. Nonetheless, I reiterate that joining such treaties is the sovereign right of Armenia and there’s no need to make clarifications. If you read the Statute, you’d see it addressing a number of war crimes, such as the ones taking place during the Azerbaijani aggressions in the territory of Armenia during the past two years. Besides, the Statute addresses genocide as a crime, and I think that Armenia, as a country of descendants of genocide, is morally bound to join this mechanism,” Khandanyan said.
The Armenian government on September 1 sent the Rome Statute to parliament for ratification.
In 2022, the Pashinyan Administration explained that it seeks to join the Rome Statute because it would allow to hold the government of Azerbaijan to account for its aggressions against Armenia.
On 17 March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, after an investigation of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Ukraine.
The ICC arrest warrant for Putin accuses the Russian leader of unlawfully deporting thousands of Ukrainian children, a war crime.
This has been denied by the Russian government.
Countries that are signatories to the Rome Statute would have to enforce the arrest warrant once Putin travels into their territory.