Russia warns Armenia against ratifying Rome Statute of ICC

YEREVAN, March 28. /ARKA/. Russia on Monday warned Armenia against ratifying the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) following the “illegal” arrest warrant issued by it for Russian President Vladimir Putin, a Russian Foreign Ministry source told TASS on Monday.

“Moscow considers absolutely unacceptable official Yerevan’s plans to join the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court against the backdrop of the recent illegal and legally void ‘warrants’ of the ICC against the Russian leadership,” said the unnamed source.

According to the source, the Armenian side was warned of the "extremely negative" consequences of Yerevan's possible plan to ratify the Rome Statute.

On March 24, Armenia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the country’s obligations under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) comply with the Basic Law. 

In late 2022, the Armenian government had asked the Constitutional Court to examine the constitutionality of the Rome Statute. According to the government, the ratification of this document will allow it to initiate legal proceedings against Azerbaijan (for war crimes committed in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia) at the ICC.

Armenia signed the Rome Statute in 1998, but has not ratified it after the Constitutional Court in 2004 found that the treaty’s obligations contradicted several provisions of the Constitution in effect at the time.

The International Criminal Court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for ‘war crimes’ for Russian President Vladimir Putin  and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, who according to an ICC statement ‘bear individual criminal responsibility for the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February last year.’ -0-