Parliament votes to revoke Hungary's withdrawal from ICC

Under a special procedure, the Hungarian Parliament adopted a bill about revoking Hungary's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court on Wednesday morning. 133 representatives of the Tisza Party supported the bill, 37 members of Fidesz–KDNP voted against it, and 5 members of Mi Hazánk abstained. The decision will enter into force the day after the law is promulgated. The government had announced its intention to reverse the withdrawal process initiated under a previous decision of the Orbán government last week.

The bill was submitted by Prime Minister Péter Magyar on behalf of the government on Tuesday. His justification for the proposal was that “in the interest of maintaining international peace and security, as well as protecting human rights, it is absolutely necessary that the perpetrators of the most serious international crimes be held accountable before an international judicial forum.” In his view, to this end, it is necessary for Hungary to continue to participate in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The Orbán government announced last spring that it would initiate Hungary’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, and the Fidesz-controlled majority in parliament voted in favor of this decision shortly thereafter. When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the ICC, arrived in Budapest on an official visit last April, he was not arrested, even though, under international law, Hungary would have been obligated to do so as a member of the ICC.

Hungary’s withdrawal process was set to conclude in June, but Péter Magyar had previously indicated that the Tisza government plans to remain in the ICC. And although he himself had also invited the Israeli Prime Minister to Hungary, when asked about this, he said: “I believe I wasn’t being disingenuous in any way; if a country is a member of the International Criminal Court and a person who is wanted by the court enters our territory, then that person must be taken into custody.” When we asked if he had said this to Netanyahu over the phone as well, Magyar replied: “I don’t need to explain everything over the phone; I assume that every head of state and government is aware of these legal provisions.”