UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein [official website] on Wednesday called [press release] for the international community to stand with the International Criminal Court (ICC) after states have recently begun leaving the institution. The commissioner urged the international community to remember there is not yet any alternative in place to ensure the implementation of the Rome Statute [text, PDF] or protect citizens from war crimes. He reiterated that various African countries have stood by the court’s side in its infancy and many of those same nations are choosing to abide by the statute

Today’s challenges are not the first stern test faced by the Court, and they will not be the last. A new trend of isolationist and unprincipled leadership is building up across the world. Renewed attacks on the Court may well be in the offing. It will take all the nerve and resources of the truly committed States Parties to resist such challenges. Now is not the time to abandon the post. This is the time for resolve and strength. To hold our international institutions together in defence of all victims of barbarity is on its own merits necessary enough. To keep this international system intact becomes even more pressing in the face of enormous pressures being heaped on it today—not least for small States who, for their security, need the companionship and protections provided by international law and by this Court.Do not betray the victims, nor your own people. Stand by the Rome Statute and the Court. It may not be perfect, in design nor operation—like any other institution, or State for that matter. But altogether it is the best we have.

The Russian Foreign Ministry released a statement [JURIST report] Wednesday expressing the government’s decision to withdraw its signature from the Rome Statute, effectively leaving the ICC. The justice minister of South Africa submitted a bill to parliament seeking withdrawal[JURIST report] from the ICC in November. The Gambian government announced [JURIST report] that it will be leaving the ICC in October. Burundi’s vote to withdrawal from the ICC elicited concern [JURIST report] from The Hague in October.