Venezuela’s National Assembly has voted to peel back the South American country’s commitment to the Rome Statute, the international treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC).

On Thursday, top Venezuelan lawmakers applauded the vote as a strike against an antiquated institution – one that has sought to investigate alleged human rights violations in Venezuela in recent years.

“It is to demonstrate and denounce to the world the uselessness and subservience of an institution that should serve to protect the people,” the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez, wrote in a government statement posted online.

Rodriguez is the brother of Venezuela’s vice president and is considered a close ally of President Nicolas Maduro.

In his statement, Rodriguez sought to

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