Venezuela has officially notified United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of its decision to permanently withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The move announced on Friday follows the approval of the National Assembly to repeal Venezuela’s ratification of the Rome Statute, the multilateral treaty that established the Court.
Foreign Minister Felix Plasencia said Venezuela believes that the ICC’s actions reflect a geographic bias, which has focused its work on African and Latin American countries, to the detriment of the Global South.
The pattern, according to Plasencia, reveals an international justice system that has been “exploited to deepen inequalities among peoples and disregard their right to self-determination and sovereignty.”
The minister accused the Hague-based tribunal of engaging in legal warfare aimed at prosecuting the Venezuelan people and serving political interests alien to international law.
Plasencia recently served as Venezuela’s diplomatic envoy to the United States and became Minister of Foreign Relations and Foreign Trade on July 14, one day after the U.S. launched a campaign against the ICC.
The ICC has an active investigation into alleged crimes against humanity in Venezuela, focusing on brutal actions by state authorities and security forces under the administration of Nicolás Maduro.
The probe, opened in 2021, covers severe human rights violations, including murder, torture, rape, political persecution, and arbitrary imprisonment in the aftermath of the 2017 political protests.
Meanwhile, during an emergency session at the UN Headquarters in New York on Friday, 82 of the 125 member states of the ICC voted to dismiss Karim Khan as prosecutor over allegations of sexual misconduct.
Khan, 56, took administrative leave in May 2025. In June 2026, the ICC Bureau formally suspended him following internal oversight findings. He becomes the first chief prosecutor to be ousted from office.
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