Kallas: ICC Under "Immense Pressure," Must Be Defended
"First, we defend the mechanisms we already have to uphold International Humanitarian Law, domestic courts as well as international courts, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, the ICC," Kallas said at a UN General Assembly side event focused on humanitarian diplomacy and international humanitarian law.
She framed accountability as a cornerstone of enforcing humanitarian law, then delivered a stark assessment of the court's current standing. "Contrary to what should be happening, the ICC is now under immense pressure," Kallas said.
The pressure facing the ICC and its judges, she argued, extends well beyond the institution itself — it tests the world's dedication to the legal architecture built in the wake of World War II.
"And let us not forget, the ICC is the world's promise that victims of the gravest international crimes will not be forgotten because accountability has become politically inconvenient. We must protect it," she said.
Kallas pushed back on the notion that international law itself is the obstacle, arguing instead that "impunity breeds impunity."
She laid out a three-pronged strategy for reinforcing accountability: defending judicial mechanisms already in place, building new ones where current systems come up short, and ensuring legal cases are constructed with the rigor needed to hold up.
To illustrate the model, Kallas pointed to the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, the tribunals established for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine — all cited as precedents for pursuing justice. She also flagged EU-backed efforts to document alleged war crimes in Syria and a UN-led investigation into Afghanistan.
On Gaza, Kallas stressed the urgency of preserving evidence tied to potential war crimes as rubble-clearing operations get underway.
"Be it in Syria, Afghanistan, Gaza, or anywhere in conflict, accountability cannot be selective or else the entire system is called into question," she said.
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