Hungarian Parliament votes in favor of Hungary leaving International Criminal Court

With 134 votes in favour, 37 against and 7 abstentions, on Tuesday, the Hungarian Parliament approved Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén's proposal for Hungary's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Gergely Gulyás, Minister of the Prime Minister's Office, announced on April 3 that the government had decided that Hungary would withdraw from the International Criminal Court. Speaking of the institution, Gulyás then said that the ICC was “a respectable initiative,” but that in recent times it had become “a political body.” Balázs Orbán, the Prime Minister's political director, gave a more detailed explanation in a Facebook post as to why he believes the country's withdrawal is important. He wrote: “There have been several occasions in recent years when the ICC has taken decisions which have interfered in unresolved, ongoing conflicts, thereby hindering peace and the possibility of a lasting settlement.”

That same day, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén submitted a bill to Parliament, proposing Hungary's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC). Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, who is responsible for implementing the new law, announced on Facebook that Hungary would be leaving the organization. According to him, the ICC “has not only discredited itself, but the entire system of international courts by the openly anti-Semitic decision to issue an international arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu”. "We, Hungarians, do not wish to be part of a politically motivated court system. The government has therefore decided to initiate withdrawal from the Rome Statute and thus Hungary's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court," the minister said. According to Szijjártó, under international law, the government's move will take effect in a year's time.

The Hungarian government first announced the decision shortly before Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest. Orbán had invited Netanyahu to Hungary in November 2024 after the ICC issued an international arrest warrant against the Israeli leader on charges of deliberately starving the population of the Gaza Strip.

The Hague-based International Criminal Court also issued an arrest warrant against former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant on charges of war crimes, as well as for Mohamed Deif, the mastermind behind Hamas's October 7, 2023, terrorist attack, who had been killed months before. According to the ICC, there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that Netanyahu may have committed crimes against humanity.

As examples, the court cited the starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare, but Netanyahu is also suspected of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts. Israel challenged the court's jurisdiction in the case, but this objection was rejected. Netanyahu's office called the court's decision absurd and anti-Semitic, and considers the panel to be politically motivated and discriminatory.