No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) congratulates Hungary on the announcement that it will rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC), but calls on leaders to revoke its withdrawal with the utmost urgency and to commit to full collaboration with the Court going forward.
After sixteen years of authoritarian consolidation by former incumbent Viktor Orbán, the recent landslide victory by Péter Magyar of the Tisza party heralds a hopeful moment for long-sidelined pro-democracy and pro-justice voices in the country. Magyar took the opportunity to announce, in his first press conference as incumbent, that he would relaunch Hungary’s accession to the ICC.
In April 2025, Hungary’s withdrawal was confirmed by a senior government official hours after Israel’s leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who is sought under an ICC arrest warrant, arrived in Hungary on a state visit. ICC judges had said in November 2024 that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu bore “criminal responsibility” for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare and the deliberate creation of conditions intended to destroy part of the civilian population in Gaza.
Orbán welcomed Netanyahu in Budapest in open defiance of this arrest warrant: a flagrant violation of Hungary’s obligations under the Rome Statute. At the time, NPWJ made its position clear: if a state cannot comply with the basic requirements of cooperation—such as arresting fugitives—it should not enjoy the privileges of being a State Party.
Threats of leaving the Court, or indeed withdrawing entirely, should never deter justice.
So, we welcomed Hungary’s decision to leave. We knew the Court would welcome them back when they were ready—and we are glad that Hungary is ready to rejoin the family of nations so soon, as we knew the people of Hungary wanted all along.
Magyar announced plans to rejoin on 13 April 2026, but the withdrawal is still due to take effect on 2 June 2026, a year after the notification was officially deposited. This means the revocation must occur in the next two weeks. All it takes is a formal communication to the UN Secretary-General, similar to the Gambia’s annulment of its withdrawal following the change in President in 2017, and Hungary will not have to suffer the consequences of Orbán’s grave error.
NPWJ urges the current President and outgoing administration to be loyal to the wishes of voters and revoke the instrument of withdrawal before 30 April 2026, so that Hungary’s collaboration with the Court remains effectively uninterrupted.
NPWJ looks forward to warmly welcoming Hungary back into the fold of the ICC and is pleased that the aberration was short-lived. As a founding member of the ICC, Hungary has reaffirmed its place among responsible nations and its renewed commitment to justice.
More broadly, this is a critical moment for the EU to capitalise on consensus. The election of a pro-European Hungarian leader “removes any tactical excuse the Commission might have had for not inflaming the US regarding the ICC,” writes Board Member Marco Perduca in an article for HuffPost Italia.
Since 6 February 2025, US President Donald Trump has imposed several rounds of wide-reaching sanctions on: ICC personnel, including prosecutors and judges; NGOs accused of “collaborating” with the Court; and the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
NPWJ has strongly advocated from the start for the implementation of the EU Blocking Statute to mitigate the impact of US sanctions and protect the Court. The Blocking Statute (Council Regulation (EC) No. 2271/96) is a legal instrument specifically designed to protect EU companies from the extraterritorial application of foreign sanctions, prohibiting EU entities from complying with such laws and overturning foreign court judgments based on them.
The Transatlantic far-right alliance—until now, spearheaded in the EU by Orbán—and nominal fear of US retaliation have thus far proven paralysing for European action against sanctions, leaving the Court’s personnel, collaborators and host country at perilous risk. This has catastrophic implications for the victims and values that the Rome Statute seeks to protect.
The European Commission must vote in favour of activating the Blocking Statute, as the European Parliament and Council have already done.
Hungary can no longer be used as a scapegoat for inaction at the European level.
