Before the Assembly: The Removal Vote and the Question of Fitness for Office
Abstract
On Friday, at a special session at United Nations headquarters in New York, the nations who comprise the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute will vote on whether the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, should be removed, following sexual misconduct allegations against him by a junior member of his staff. The vote comes after an investigative process that has spanned nearly two years, and been marred by ad hoc procedures that have harmed the complainant, Mr. Khan, and the Court. Our shared view is that Mr. Khan should not resume his duties. In ordinary institutional circumstances, a resignation would likely have come long ago. But whatever position one takes on the outcome, it is worth being precise about what the ASP is, and is not, being asked to decide, because much of the public debate has conflated two distinct questions.
External Links
https://www.justsecurity.org/148713/icc-prosecutor-removal-vote/, archived at https://perma.cc/M276-M459
Source Publication
Just Security
Repository Citation
Rebecca Hamilton & Nema Milaninia,
Before the Assembly: The Removal Vote and the Question of Fitness for Office,
Just Security
(2026).
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/pub_disc_media/676