Venezuela announces definitive exit from International Criminal Court, citing "bias"

Venezuela has officially announced its decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), denouncing the Rome Statute. The Venezuelan government stated that the ICC exhibits a "bias," concentrating its efforts disproportionately on African and Latin American countries. This move follows a pattern of nations distancing themselves from the court.

Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia communicated the decision to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, asserting that the ICC's actions reveal an international justice system that has been "instrumentalized" to deepen inequalities and disregard the right to self-determination and sovereignty. He described this as a form of "lawfare" that perpetuates persecution against the Venezuelan people.

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This pattern reveals an international justice that, far from being applied equitably, has been instrumentalized to deepen inequalities between peoples and disregard their right to self-determination and sovereignty.

Venezuela's decision is not isolated. Burundi was the first country to formally leave the Rome Statute in 2017, following an ICC investigation into political violence. The Philippines, under former President Rodrigo Duterte, withdrew in 2019 after a preliminary examination of abuses during his "war on drugs." More recently, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, all part of the Alliance of Sahel States, have announced their withdrawal, accusing the court of partiality and acting as a "neocolonial tool."

Other nations have initiated withdrawal processes but later reversed them, such as Gambia, whose initial exit announcement was revoked by a subsequent democratic government. South Africa also notified its intention to leave after a controversy involving Omar al-Bashir, but its courts declared the withdrawal unconstitutional. Major powers like the United States, Russia, China, Israel, and India have never been active parties to the court, having either not ratified the treaty or withdrawn their signatures early on.

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Therefore, we reject this dimension of lawfare, which perpetuates persecution against the Venezuelan people and exacerbates the inequalities that international justice should correct.