The International Criminal Court’s penchant for shooting blanks is about to be tested by South Africa, as Pretoria indicates it plans to fete President Putin with accolades this summer rather than arrest him. 

The Hague-based ICC has called on its members to arrest Mr. Putin, on war crime allegations related to forcing the deportation of children to Russia from Ukraine. On Monday, Pretoria nevertheless issued blanket immunity to guests participating in an international group’s August summit.

Leaders of the group’s member states — Brazil, Russia, India, Communist China, and South Africa — are scheduled to confer at Pretoria in August. On Thursday the BRICS foreign ministers will meet there to prepare for the summit. In advance, the South African government guaranteed diplomatic immunity from prosecution for officials of the group.

The move raised concerns among Hague supporters that Mr. Putin will be able to travel freely to an ICC member state in defiance of the arrest warrant. The Rome Statute, which governs the ICC, has “made it clear that there is no immunity for heads of state,” the director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch, Liz Evenson, tells the Sun.

“And if there was such immunity, it would have punctured a hole in the idea behind the ICC,” which is that “no one is above the law,” Ms. Evenson says.   

Article 27 of the Rome Statute claims that its global jurisdiction applies to a “head of state or government, a member of a government or parliament, an elected representative or a government official shall in no case exempt a person from criminal responsibility.”

In 2015, the Sudanese strongman at the time, Omar al-Bashir, attended an African summit in South Africa after the ICC issued a global arrest warrant against him for war crimes and crimes against humanity at Darfur. Although the warrant applied to all ICC members, Bashir left the country unscathed. 

At the time Pretoria argued that arresting a head of state would harm a peace process. Yet, two South African courts later sided with plaintiffs who called for complying with the court’s arrest warrant. By that time Bashir had already left the country.  

South Africa’s failure to arrest Bashir helped several other countries to ignore the ICC’s warrant. The Sudanese butcher traveled later to several Arab countries, as well as to Moscow, in 2017, where he received the red carpet treatment rather than handcuffs.

America, Communist China, India, Israel, Russia, and others have not ratified the Rome Statute, and are not ICC members. Yet, as alleged Russian crimes happened in Ukraine, the ICC claims jurisdiction. Kyiv, which is not an ICC member either, has allowed the court in and cooperated with its investigators in collecting war crimes evidence. 

“Russia attaches enormous importance” to the BRICS summit and will be represented “at the proper level,” the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Tuesday, adding, “of course we count as a bare minimum on partner countries in such an important format not being guided by such illegal decisions” as the ICC arrest warrant.

Prestoria’s immunities to the BRICS summiteers “are meant to protect the conference and its attendees from the jurisdiction of the host country for the duration of the conference,” the South African government said in a statement. These immunities “do not override any warrant that may have been issued by any international tribunal,” the statement insisted. 

Yet, following initial cheers for the Rome Statute and the ICC inception, Pretoria’s long-ruling party, the African National Congress, has had some ups and downs with the court. Ten years ago ANC officials joined other leaders on the continent in a threat to leave the ICC, alleging it too often singled out Africans for prosecution while ignoring crimes elsewhere. 

Following the March arrest warrant against Mr. Putin, President Ramaphosa of South Africa, indicating that the court harbors bias against BRICS members, said his party decided that “it is prudent that South Africa should pull out of the ICC.” Pretoria later issued a “clarification,” denying the country is contemplating such a departure. Yet, the threat remains. 

President Clinton’s representatives have helped shape up the Rome Statute, including by adding immunities that meant to protect Americans against ICC prosecution. The Senate, though, never ratified the statute, and several Republican administrations opposed its jurisdiction. While President Trump denied a visa for the ICC prosecutor, Biden administration officials are cheering on the court’s jurisdiction over the Ukraine war and other conflicts.  

Last week Russia issued an arrest warrant against Senator Graham of South Carolina. “I will submit to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court if you do,” Mr. Graham, a frequent ICC critic, said in a taunt to Mr. Putin. Neither man is in danger of being tried at the Hague any time soon.