The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) as an institution, a step that goes well beyond earlier measures against individual officials. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the measures, which include a ban on US individuals and entities doing business with the court, were meant to "defend US sovereignty". He called the ICC a "rogue court" and said: "Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC." Rubio said President Donald Trump "will never allow" the court to prosecute Americans.
The ICC, founded in 2002 and based in The Hague, prosecutes war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and has 125 member states. The US, Russia, China, India and Israel are not among them. Washington had already sanctioned 17 ICC judges and officials, including its prosecutor. The new measures would bar US companies from providing services such as banking and software. Some provisions will not take effect for six months, which Washington says gives member states time to negotiate a "solution" to its concerns. Licences are also planned to let the court keep running its detention facilities. The Trump administration is angry about the court's now-closed Afghanistan investigation, which examined the conduct of US soldiers, and about its arrest warrants for Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who welcomed the sanctions and called the ICC a political body.
The ICC called the measures "an assault on the rule of law" and said it would not be deterred. It added that its fate "now rests also in the hands of the states that created it". UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the decision "a serious blow" to international criminal justice. Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and the UK said they "regret and strongly disagree with" the sanctions. Amnesty International urged states to resist them.
The practical stakes are high. Dutch legal scholar Marieke de Hoon described the measures as a "sledgehammer blow", warning that the court's bank accounts and IT systems, along with the NGOs that supply it with evidence, could be affected. The court's bank is in the Netherlands, which hosts the tribunal and is also a NATO ally of the US. Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten called the sanctions "deeply regrettable" but said the delay gives "vital space for dialogue". De Hoon noted that this tone is softer than his recent "hands off the ICC" speech at the UN, and floated options such as an EU blocking statute or EU states taking over the court's payments. New York University law professor Ryan Goodman warned that if the court cannot operate fairly, detainees awaiting trial, among them former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, might eventually have to be released.
The timing was striking. Hours earlier, the Nobel Peace Prize went to Navi Pillay, a South African jurist and former ICC judge, for her work on international law. Rubio's statement did not mention her. One commentary noted that the sequence does not prove retaliation, since Washington had signalled a campaign against the court earlier. The same commentary argued that targeting the institution itself is new and could hamper investigations that have nothing to do with Americans. The ICC's survival may now depend on whether member states supply the financing and services it needs.