The Republic of South Africa has informed that it will grant diplomatic immunity to the participants of two meetings during the BRICS summit. Russian President Putin plans to visit it.
Bloomberg writes about it.
The immunity will extend to the BRICS foreign ministers — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. They will gather for a meeting on June 1-2 in Cape Town.
The leaders of the states who will come to the summit in South Africa on August 22-24 will also receive immunity.
“This is a standard grant of immunity that we do for all international conferences and summits held in South Africa, regardless of the level of participation. Immunities are for the conference and not for specific individuals. They are intended to protect the conference and its participants from the jurisdiction of the host country for the duration of the conference," the Department of International Relations and Cooperation noted.
But it emphasized that these immunities "do not take precedence over any warrant that could be issued by any international tribunal against any member of the conference."
- South Africa is a signatory to the Rome Statute. In view of this, she is forced to arrest Putin. The authorities of South Africa have assured that they will comply with the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. However, it has in the past violated its agreement with the Rome Statute when it did not arrest former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who has been charged with genocide and crimes against humanity.
- On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the President of Russia Vladimir Putin and the Russian Presidentʼs Commissioner for Childrenʼs Rights Maria Lvova-Belova. They are accused of directing the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, which is a war crime. Children were taken out without the permission of relatives and Ukraine, in Russia they were granted citizenship. For this purpose, Putin passed a number of decrees that simplified these procedures, and Lvova-Belova carried out his instructions. Together with their parents, up to 150 000 children could be deported to Russia (just over 300 were returned). For the fifth time in its history, the International Court of Justice issues a warrant for the arrest of a sitting president. He can be arrested by a country that has ratified the Rome Statute.