Those pesky Security Council resolutions

As it must, the International Criminal Court reminds Western policymakers that any deal allowing Gaddafi to remain in Libya would violate UN Security Council resolutions, which impose a legal obligation on Libya to cooperate with the court. Via the Guardian: The international criminal court has dismissed suggestions by Britain and France that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

As it must, the International Criminal Court reminds Western policymakers that any deal allowing Gaddafi to remain in Libya would violate UN Security Council resolutions, which impose a legal obligation on Libya to cooperate with the court. Via the Guardian:

As it must, the International Criminal Court reminds Western policymakers that any deal allowing Gaddafi to remain in Libya would violate UN Security Council resolutions, which impose a legal obligation on Libya to cooperate with the court. Via the Guardian:

The international criminal court has dismissed suggestions by Britain and France that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi could be allowed to remain in Libya as part of negotiated deal to remove him from power, insisting that a new government would be obliged to arrest the dictator under warrants issued by the court.

The ICC, which Britain and France have signed up to, said that Gaddafi could not be allowed to escape justice. "He has to be arrested," said Florence Olara, spokeswoman for the court’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

On Monday the foreign secretary, William Hague, said Britain was prepared to agree to a political settlement in Libya that would see Gaddafi remain in the country after relinquishing his hold on power.

If the Council members want to lift that legal obligation on Libya, they know how to do so (Article 16 of the ICC’s Rome Statute outlines the procedure for deferral of ICC investigations). But, as usual, the Council members want to have it all: they want to talk grandly about ending impunity but are much less sure about altering their policies to actually do so.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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