As the International Criminal Court (ICC) conducts a preliminary investigation of alleged Israeli war crimes, Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has declared that the ICC will not investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity, including alleged genocide, committed by ISIS. In a statement released on April 8, 2015, Bensouda said that the ICC lacked jurisdiction over ISIS because (a) neither Syria nor Iraq, the sites of ISIS's atrocities, have accepted ICC jurisdiction, and (b) the thousands of foreign nationals belonging to ISIS from states that have accepted ICC jurisdiction don't count.
In Bensouda's words:
1. "Crimes of unspeakable cruelty have been reported... Syria and Iraq are not Parties to the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court .Therefore, the Court has no territorial jurisdiction over crimes committed on their soil..."
2. "Several thousand foreign fighters have joined the ranks of ISIS in the past months alone, including significant numbers of State Party nationals from, inter alia, Tunisia, Jordan, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Australia. Some of these individuals may have been involved in the commission of crimes against humanity and war crimes. A few have publicised their heinous acts through social media. The information available to the Office also indicates that ISIS is a military and political organisation primarily led by nationals of Iraq and Syria. Thus, at this stage, the prospects of my Office investigating and prosecuting those most responsible, within the leadership of ISIS, appear limited."
Bensouda concluded: "In this context, I have come to the conclusion that the jurisdictional basis for opening a preliminary examination into this situation is too narrow at this stage..."
To repeat: the war crimes of "unspeakable cruelty" committed by ISIS are "too narrow" for the International Criminal Court!
ISIS could come before the ICC if the case was referred by the Security Council. But that would endanger Syria's Assad - protected by Russia and China at the Security Council - as the conflict would be considered more generally.