Summary The court rejected the US sanctions as an attack on international law and warned in a statement that history will judge this moment
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court, vowing to cripple the tribunal’s operations just hours after the Nobel Peace Prize went to a former ICC judge who warned of mounting political attacks on the court.
The move came on the same day the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the peace prize to South Africa’s Navi Pillay, an 85-year-old jurist who headed the Rwanda genocide tribunal, served on the ICC and later led a UN commission that accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington would ban transactions with what he called a “rogue court,” escalating a long-running campaign by President Donald Trump’s administration against the Hague-based tribunal.
“Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC,” Rubio said in a statement, claiming that the court wants more power at the expense of American sovereignty.
Rubio’s statement did not mention Pillay or the Nobel award. Instead, he said the sanctions were needed to protect security personnel and elected officials from prosecution by a court the United States has never joined.
“President Trump will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans,” Rubio said, adding that the measures would cut off the court’s resources and cripple “its ability to operate”.
The top US diplomat said Washington had, for more than a year, spelt out “basic gestures of good faith” it expected from the court, and had held off on the designation in hopes that the ICC or its member states would change course. He said no “meaningful steps” were taken to address US concerns.
Rubio also called on US allies that belong to the court and “rely on American service members for their defence” to rein it in, warning that otherwise Washington would keep working to dismantle the ICC “brick by brick”.
The Trump administration had previously sanctioned individual ICC officials, including its prosecutor and several judges, over the court’s investigations involving the United States and Israel, which is also not a member.
Trump last month called on all ICC member states to quit the body, denouncing it as “out of control” and a “rogue institution. “
The court, however, rejected the US sanctions as an attack on international law and warned in a statement that “history will judge this moment”.
In a statement, the court called the sanctions “an assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order which strikes at the simple principle that no one stands above the law”.
It added that such actions were aimed at intimidating ICC staff and disrupting its activities, vowing it would not be deterred.
“The Court will continue to fully discharge its mandate, with independence and impartiality, acting only on the basis of the law and the evidence, for the sake of the countless victims of grave crimes,” ICC President Tomoko Akane was quoted as saying.
The statement called on the ICC’s 125 members to side with the institution, saying: “Its fate now rests also in the hands of the states that created it.
“Future generations, and above all the victims of mass atrocities, will ask how we responded when an institution created to protect them came under attack,” said the court.
States, rights groups back ICC
Following the move, several countries and rights groups issued statements condemning US sanctions on the court.
The foreign ministers of Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan and the United Kingdom backed the ICC in a joint statement.
“As committed supporters of the ICC, we regret and strongly disagree with the announcement of sanctions to be imposed upon the Court by the United States,” it read.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International slammed the US “attack” on the ICC, calling on countries to “resist” after Washington imposed sanctions on the judicial body.
President Donald Trump’s “sanctions are designed to isolate and ultimately destroy the International Criminal Court,” Amnesty’s Erika Guevara Rosas said in a statement. “This existential attack must fail. States must take concrete action to resist the imposition of these measures.”
UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned Washington’s decision and said he was “deeply alarmed by the expected impact” of the measures.
“Today’s decision marks a serious blow to our collective pursuit of international criminal justice, of which the ICC is a key pillar,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
“The secretary-general reiterates his unwavering support for the independence of the Court and its officials,” he added.
Similarly, UN human rights chief Volker Turk slammed the new sanctions, saying, “These sanctions — the latest in a series of retaliatory steps against the ICC and its personnel for the work they do every day to advance accountability for the very worst violations of human rights — are unacceptable.”
However, Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten said a six-month pause should be used to pursue negotiations with Washington before the sanctions take effect.
“The announced sanctions by the United States against the ICC are deeply regrettable. At the same time, these sanctions will not take effect immediately. And this is crucial because it provides us vital space for dialogue in the upcoming months,” Jetten told reporters.
