New ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan promises To Be Impartial

During a ceremony at the Hague,  Khan took over as the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor from Gambia’s  Fatou Bensouda with a pledge to improve its track record by taking only its strongest cases to trial.

Khan takes up the role as the world faces many challenges at a time of fierce political pressure. The ICC is currently handling several sensitive cases, including in the occupied Palestinian territory and Afghanistan, and members of the prosecutor’s office were personally targeted by US sanctions while Donald Trump was president. Under Trump, Washington opposed decisions by Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, to examine war crimes allegations in Afghanistan, including against US troops, and alleged atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territories by Israeli troops, Palestinians, and other armed groups.

ICC chief judge Piotr Hofmanski said during the swearing-in ceremony that being prosecutor was a “tough job” but hailed Khan’s “outstanding credentials”. Khan also pledged to reach out to nations that are not members of the court and to try to hold trials in countries where crimes are committed. World powers the United States, Russia, and China are not members and do not recognize the court’s jurisdiction. Already short of resources, the ICC is dealing with 14 full-blown investigations and eight preliminary examinations. Khan also inherits investigations opened in countries including Myanmar, the Philippines, and Ukraine.

The ICC was set up nearly 20 years ago as a full-time successor to the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals and several separate international tribunals into situations such as the former Yugoslavia. However, it has long faced criticism on many fronts, ranging from alleged bias, its initial focus on cases involving Africa, the large pay packets for judges, and the length of time taken to bring suspects to justice. “The ICC is in a crucial phase, it has faced criticism for not being as effective as states have wished,” Carsten Stahn, an international criminal law professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands said.

Bensouda had several setbacks, with former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo being cleared of crimes against humanity, while former DRC vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba was acquitted on appeal, and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta had charges against him dropped. But she recently secured high-profile convictions against Ugandan child soldier-turned-Lord’s Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen and Congolese strongman Bosco “Terminator” Ntaganda. In her farewell statement, Bensouda said that she had “made my decisions, with careful deliberation – but without fear or favor. Even in the face of adversity. Even at considerable personal cost”.