Al-Haq condemns the egregious conduct of Hungary today, 3 April 2025, in welcoming the wanted war criminal Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to Hungary, in defiance of its clear legal obligation to detain and transfer him into custody to await trial at The Hague. Hungary is actively consolidating Israeli impunity. In declaring that Hungary will withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), Hungary is further contributing to the dismantling of the international legal framework. Al-Haq calls on Interpol to intervene to ensure the necessary steps are taken by Hungarian authorities to arrest Netanyahu and for the Hungarian Bar Association and lawyers to take legal action.

Responding to the issuance of the ICC arrest warrants against Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Minister of Defence, Gallant, many states central to the establishment of the Court immediately sought to identify and claim legal exceptions which would allow them to avoid their obligations to hold Israeli leaders to account for their criminal conduct. In the wake of the arrest warrants, and crucially in the light of the findings of the International Court of Justice that Israel’s conduct in Gaza constitutes a violation of the Convention Against Genocide, it is imperative that all states parties to the Rome Statute refrain from further undermining the very existence of the ICC.

The ICC is under immense, and increasing pressure, not least due to the imposition of wide ranging sanctions from Israel’s key ally, the United States. It is vital that the Court receive all necessary support, particularly that support which it has requested from the European Union, in whose jurisdiction the institution is based. State parties to the Rome Statute must abide by their legal obligations under the Rome Statute, and the well established jurisprudence of the Court, to give effect to orders and requests made by the Court’s independent judiciary. The Court’s Assembly of States Parties must take immediate and effective action to ensure the viability of the Court is protected, and that states parties which choose to ignore their legal obligations and to denigrate the function of the Court, are not permitted to destroy the institution –– the consequences of which can only fuel the commission of further atrocity crimes.

The Hungarian government has consistently sought to ensure the exclusion of Palestine from the framework of international law. Echoing and amplifying the Israeli narrative which seeks to deny Palestinians access to the rule of law, Hungary submitted arguments to the ICC in March 2020 that the Court could not exercise jurisdiction over the territory of the State of Palestine, and in August 2024 that the Court could not exercise jurisdiction over Israeli nationals for Rome Statute crimes perpetrated in Palestine. In July 2023 Hungary submitted legal analysis to the International Court of Justice, again echoing the Israeli narrative, arguing for the Court not to issue an Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, as had been requested by the UN General Assembly.

On each of these occasions, Hungary claimed to affirm its commitment to the rule of international law, and emphasised the crucial role played by these judicial institutions. Hungary was clear however, that Palestinians had no right to access these Courts, nor any right to seek to rely upon international law in order to hold the state of Israel or individual Israelis to account for their ongoing and escalating violations of international law. Hungary’s legal rationale, one shared by many of its European neighbours, was that Palestinian legal claims against Israel could only be countenanced when siloed in the exceptional ‘legal’ framework of the Oslo Accords, such a framework being understood as permitting Israel total freedom of conduct.

Such argumentation has been categorically rejected. The ICC affirmed that it does exercise jurisdiction over the State of Palestine, and has issued binding arrest warrants against Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Minister of Defence Gallant. The ICJ did issue its Advisory Opinion confirming that Israel’s presence in occupied Palestine is unlawful and racist, a conclusion endorsed by significant majority of nation states at the UN General Assembly. Regardless as to whether Hungary decides to withdraw from the Rome Statute, it remains bound by its legal obligations under the Statute for a fixed period, since, as has been established by the ICC, withdrawal from a treaty such as the Rome Statute does not affect any right, obligation or legal situation created through the execution of the treaty prior to its termination by a state party. Hungary is today in blatant breach of its obligations under the Rome Statute.

The response of too many ICC member states to the ongoing genocidal destruction of the Palestinian people, characterised by shallow, rhetorical, affirmations of commitments to international law, but devoid of any meaningful action, are now directly contributing to the visible destruction of the very institutions that can have the capacity to end impunity for the perpetrators of the most grievous of international crimes. All member states must directly take concrete actions to execute the arrest warrants, support the Court and hold to account those States, such as Hungary who desire to see it dismantled.