The United States has imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court as an institution, going beyond its earlier measures against individual judges and prosecutors. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington would ban transactions with the court and cut off its resources.

The United States has announced a new set of sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC), this time aimed at the court itself rather than at its officials, Al Jazeera reported.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the announcement on Friday, October 9.

What Rubio Said

“We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling their ability to operate against us because our message is clear: the United States and the American people are not subject to the jurisdiction of this fake ICC,” Rubio said in a video posted on social media.

“Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC.”

The administration of President Donald Trump has promised an “all of government” approach to dismantling the court.

Washington’s Reasons

The administration has pointed to two matters in particular:

  • the court’s investigation into abuses committed in Afghanistan, which could involve US military and intelligence personnel
  • the ICC’s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over the war in Gaza

An Escalation

Until now, US sanctions had been directed at people and groups connected to the court: ICC judges and prosecutors, a UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, and Palestinian rights groups that had provided evidence.

Several rights groups have challenged those earlier sanctions in US federal court. Sanctioned ICC judges have also brought legal challenges in the United States.

The Court’s Response

Deputy prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan told Reuters that the sanctions “must be condemned”.

“The sanctions are intended to undermine the rule of law internationally and the work that an independent judicial institution is doing,” she said. “Our work will continue across all our situations, our investigations and our prosecutions.”

The Legal Background

Neither the United States nor Israel is a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the court.

The court has long held, however, that abuses committed by their citizens on the territory of ICC member states can be prosecuted. To date, it has not sought to prosecute any US citizen.

Pressure on Other Countries

The US has also urged other countries to withdraw from the court, and has suggested it will take allies’ relationship with the ICC into account when deciding on foreign assistance.

In July, Chad and Venezuela moved to withdraw, following Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Some members have complained of what they call the unequal application of international law, with offenders in the Global South more likely to face accountability.

The Timing

The announcement came only hours after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Navi Pillay, a South African jurist and former ICC judge. The Nobel committee said the prize comes at a time when judges and institutions of international law are under political attack.

Image: The International Criminal Court in The Hague (file photo, 2019). Photo by OSeveno via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.