Sexual abuse claims have dragged the international criminal court into crisis – but what happens now?

Investigating claims made against Karim Khan, the ICC top prosecutor, has turned into a lengthy process fraught with geopolitics and rows over standards of proof Behind the closed doors of a large room at the international criminal court’s fortress-like headquarters in The Hague, senior diplomats who oversee the court have been gathering each week to try to resolve a crisis. On their agenda: the fate of the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, a British lawyer whose tenure at the court was thrown into disarray nearly two years ago by sexual abuse allegations that he denies. The committee of diplomats – made up of a rotating selection of 21 of the ICC’s 125 member states – is weighing two lengthy reports on the claims as part of a convoluted process that could still take months to conclude. Last week, the committee voted to progress the case against Khan, which his representatives have sought to cast as part of an effort to discredit him for his 2024 decision to seek arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials over alleged crimes in Gaza. What began as a set of workplace abuse allegations by a woman who worked for Khan has become entangled in geopolitics and disputes over