Economist Al Kinani urges Iraq to rejoin ICC to pursue $5T war reparations

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Prominent Iraqi academic and economic expert Nasser Al-Kinani revealed on Saturday, June 6, 2026, that he has compiled an extensive legal dossier estimating the structural, institutional, and human damage inflicted upon Iraq by the 2003 invasion at approximately $5 trillion.

Al-Kinani urged the federal government to officially rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC) to unlock international legal avenues and pursue these massive compensation claims on the global stage.

Al-Kinani stated that over the past several years, he has systematically gathered a wide array of evidence—including legal documents, video footage, photographs, and international human rights reports—chronicling the severe violations and destruction caused by the invasion and subsequent occupation.

He confirmed that he has already established contact with specialized law firms and legal groups across the United States, the United Kingdom, and several other nations to evaluate the viability of launching international compensation lawsuits on behalf of the Iraqi state.

According to Al-Kinani, international legal experts who reviewed his dossier concluded that the cumulative financial damage warrants a potential claim of $5 trillion against the member states of the 2003 coalition, led primarily by the United States.

He clarified that the documented damages span state institutions, destroyed private sector companies (domestic, regional, and foreign), and individual civilian casualties, highlighting the staggering toll of lives lost, injuries sustained, and livelihoods permanently disrupted by the conflict and its aftermath.

However, international legal scholars note that serious jurisdictional obstacles stand in the way of this ambitious initiative. Al-Kinani pointed out that Iraq’s primary hurdle stems from its status regarding the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC.

The Iraqi interim government, then led by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, initially voted to accede to the Rome Statute in February 2005, only to abruptly rescind the decision in March of the same year. Rejoining the court now, Al-Kinani argues, would finally equip Baghdad with the sovereign leverage required to defend state and citizen rights globally.
Despite these aspirations, the structural mechanics of the ICC present significant legal friction:

• Individual vs. State Liability: Established under the Rome Statute, the ICC is strictly mandated to prosecute natural persons for individual criminal liability (genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression). It does not function as an international tribunal to adjudicate financial or territorial civil disputes between sovereign states.
• Non-Retroactivity Constraints: Article 11 of the Rome Statute strictly dictates that the court can only exercise jurisdiction over crimes committed after the statute has officially entered into force for the ratifying state, meaning a fresh ratification would not automatically cover 2003 events.
• Victim Reparations Limits: While Article 75 does govern victim reparations (including restitution, compensation, and rehabilitation), these awards can only be ordered after a specific individual has been tried and convicted by the court, offering no direct legal mechanism to compel an entire invading nation to pay state-to-state reparations.

Historically, the ICC has touched upon the Iraq War. The Office of the Prosecutor spent years conducting a preliminary examination into allegations of war crimes committed by British personnel in Iraq between 2003 and 2008, given the UK’s status as a state party to the Rome Statute. However, that file was officially closed in 2020 without opening a full-scale judicial investigation, after the court concluded that British authorities were already conducting their own domestic inquiries.