Rights group urges Hungary to surrender Israel PM Netanyahu to ICC upon visit – JURIST

Amnesty International called upon Hungary on Monday to arrest and surrender Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the International Criminal Court ahead of his reported visit to the country.

According to an announcement from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office, he will be visiting Hungary, on invitation from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, from Wednesday to Sunday. Head of Global Research, Advocacy, and Policy of Amnesty International, Erika Guevara-Rosas, in response to these reports, stated,

Prime Minister Netanyahu is an alleged war criminal, who is accused of using starvation as a method of warfare, intentionally attacking civilians and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts. As a member state of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Hungary must arrest him if he travels to the country and hand him over to the Court. Any trip he takes to an ICC member state that does not end in his arrest would embolden Israel to commit further crimes against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Noting that Netanyahu’s visit would “make a mockery of the suffering of Palestinian victims of Israel’s genocide in Gaza” and criticizing the “shameful silence and inaction” of global leaders, Amnesty International asserts that Netanyah’s impunity must end.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and the commander of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Dief, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity on November 21, 2024. The ICC terminated proceedings against Dief on February 26, 2025, following confirmation of his death. The ICC rejected Israel’s legal challenges to its jurisdiction and the legality of the requests for arrest warrants.

Hungary is one of the 125 countries party to the Rome Statute of the ICC. Member states to the statute are legally obligated to “cooperate fully” with the Court, with Article 89 requiring states to “comply with requests for arrest and surrender” should the Court transmit such a request.

In addition to Hungary, several member states to the Rome Statute, including France, Germany, and Italy, have stated or suggested they would not comply with the ICC’s request to arrest Netanyahu if he travelled to their countries. The US has sanctioned the ICC for issuing the arrest warrants. Earlier this year, human rights organizations, such as the Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, based in the occupied Gaza Strip, condemned Greece, Italy, and France for “failing to uphold their legal obligations under international law” by permitting Netanyahu to cross their airspace “without executing the warrants of arrest.”

Amnesty International and Al Mezan have both expressed such actions “undermine” the ICC, with the former acknowledging the “global backlash” the ICC is facing as an attempt to “undermine the international rule of law and stamp out the prospect of accountability for the most powerful.” Al Mezan warned that “continued attempts to delegitimize the ICC” will have “far-reaching consequences,” with such actions setting a “dangerous precedent that weakens the global legal framework established to ensure accountability for the most serious crimes.”