Experts discuss jurisdictional and political issues and applications for warrants of arrest
On 03 April 2025, the Afghanistan Legal Research Network (ALRN) held its second symposium of the year on the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) investigation into the situation in Afghanistan. Legal scholars elaborated on two complex aspects of the ICC’s engagement in the Afghanistan Situation: its changing jurisdictional scope and the prospects for enforcement of recently issued warrants of arrest.
After a Max Planck Foundation research fellow laid the groundwork for the conversation by providing a brief history of the relationship between Afghanistan and the ICC, Dr Haroon Mutasem explored the way that—while international criminal justice may be limited in terms of its reach—much hope remains among Afghans for the justice that it promises. He explored this theme through a focus on two types of challenges the court has faced in its investigation: jurisdictional and political. Dr Mutasem walked the audience through the contours of the Court’s temporal, territorial, and subject matter jurisdiction, while also covering the way that political pressures, both domestic and international, have necessitated the Court’s adaptation.
Dr Latifa Jafari Alavi then covered the issue of implementation of two warrants of arrest, should their application be approved, for senior Taliban officials. After highlighting the importance of state cooperation with the ICC for effective enforcement, and distinguishing the ICC’s horizontal approach to obligations from the more vertical approach of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Dr Alavi covered the four ways in which the ICC could enforce arrest warrants in Afghanistan. She ultimately concluded that there is no prospect of implementing the arrest warrants unless a strong political pressure is exerted to urge this.
The symposium was part of a series hosted by The Foundation under the auspices of the Afghanistan Legal Research Network. The two experts concluded by situating the ICC’s challenges in Afghanistan as part of a broader trend in international criminal justice and emphasising the importance of the Court’s role in holding perpetrators accountable, despite ongoing challenges.