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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →The International Criminal Court can issue arrest warrants and ask countries to arrest and surrender suspects, but it cannot make arrests itself. The ICC has no police force. Arrests depend on national authorities acting under the legal rules that apply to the country and situation; if a state fails to cooperate, the Court can formally find non-compliance and refer the matter to a political body, but that referral does not compel an arrest.
What the ICC can—and cannot—do
ICC judges may issue an arrest warrant after a request from the Prosecutor. The Court’s Office of the Prosecutor says judges must find reasonable grounds to believe the person committed the alleged crime and that arrest is needed for purposes such as ensuring the person appears in court, preventing obstruction or danger to proceedings, or preventing continuation of the alleged crime. The ICC explains the warrant process.
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After a warrant is issued, the Court can send a request to a state where the person may be found. It cannot dispatch its own officers to arrest the suspect. As the ICC states, it has no police force or enforcement body; domestic police and judicial authorities carry out arrests and surrender people to the Court. The Court’s cooperation overview describes this reliance on states.
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Who is required to act on an ICC request?
States Parties
Countries that are parties to the Rome Statute undertake to cooperate fully with the Court under Article 86. Article 89 says they must comply with requests for arrest and surrender in accordance with Part 9 of the Statute and their national procedures. Article 88 requires States Parties to ensure that domestic procedures exist for the forms of cooperation set out in Part 9. The treaty therefore creates a legal duty, while national authorities perform the operational work. Read the Rome Statute, including Part 9.
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Non-party states
A country that is not a State Party is not subject to the general cooperation obligation in Article 86 simply by virtue of the Statute. It may cooperate under an ad hoc arrangement, an agreement, or another appropriate legal basis. A Security Council referral or other situation-specific basis can also affect the applicable obligations. If a non-party state has entered an arrangement or agreement to cooperate and then fails to do so, the Court may inform the Assembly of States Parties or, for a Security Council-referred situation, the Security Council. The legal basis must be assessed for the particular country and situation. The Statute’s cooperation provisions set out these routes.
“Surrender” is not the same as extradition
The Rome Statute uses “surrender” for delivery of a person by a state to the ICC. “Extradition” refers to delivery by one state to another. An ICC arrest request is therefore not simply a conventional bilateral extradition request, even though national procedures are involved in carrying it out. The distinction appears in the Statute’s definitions and cooperation provisions. See the Rome Statute.
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What happens when a state does not comply?
Under Article 87(7), the Court may find that a State Party failed to comply with a request when that failure prevents the Court from exercising its functions and powers. The Court may refer the matter to the Assembly of States Parties. If the case arose from a Security Council referral, it may instead refer the matter to the Security Council.
This is a formal institutional response, not an enforcement power. Article 87(7) does not itself authorize ICC officers to enter the country, seize a suspect, or impose an automatic, uniform sanction that produces an arrest. The Court can record the failure and refer it; action to arrest and surrender the person still depends on the state’s authorities. Article 87(7) of the Rome Statute.
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Examples show the gap between a finding and an arrest
Jordan and Omar Al-Bashir
On 11 December 2017, the ICC said Pre-Trial Chamber II found that Jordan had failed to comply with the Statute by not arresting and surrendering Omar Al-Bashir while he was in the country for the League of Arab States summit on 29 March 2017. The Chamber referred the matter to both the Assembly of States Parties and the UN Security Council. Read the ICC’s announcement on Jordan.
Mongolia and Vladimir Putin
The Assembly of States Parties’ official non-cooperation register lists a finding concerning Mongolia’s failure to cooperate with the Court’s request to arrest and surrender Vladimir Putin. The register records a non-cooperation finding; it does not mean the Court itself carried out an arrest. Consult the Assembly’s non-cooperation register.
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Tajikistan and Vladimir Putin
On 19 March 2026, an ICC Pre-Trial Chamber finding concluded that Tajikistan had not complied with the request to arrest and surrender Putin and referred the matter to the Assembly of States Parties. On 7 May 2026, the ICC Presidency announced it had referred the finding to the Assembly President. These steps demonstrate the Court’s formal response to non-compliance, not an arrest by the Court. Read the ICC Presidency announcement.
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The practical chain has several links: judges issue a warrant, the Court sends a request, and the state where the person is located must take action under the rules that apply there. The ICC’s lack of an independent police force means a warrant is not self-executing. Treaty duties, domestic procedures, the legal basis for cooperation, and potentially complex questions such as immunities or competing obligations can all matter. Part 9 of the Rome Statute includes consultation and immunity provisions, so individual cases should not be treated as legally identical. The Statute sets out the relevant cooperation framework.
The examples above are case-specific and do not establish an overall enforcement rate. No comparable general rate follows from these findings, and warrant status or cooperation proceedings can change over time.
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