WASHINGTON (AN) — The Trump administration's latest efforts to obstruct the world's first permanant war crimes tribunal "risk undermining global efforts to ensure accountability," the heads of its governing body said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's announcement the United States will impose sanctions on four International Criminal Court judges is of "deep concern," the three diplomats who oversee the court said on Friday.
"These new actions, in addition to an earlier designation of an elected official, are regrettable attempts to impede the court and its personnel in the exercise of their independent judicial functions," said ICC Assembly of States Parties' president, Päivi Kaukoranta of Finland, and vice-presidents Margareta Kassangana of Poland and Michael Imran Kanu of Sierra Leone.
The three diplomats, who work on behalf of 125 member nations that have ratified the ICC's Rome Statute, said they "firmly and unequivocally reject these unilateral measures. They represent a regrettable affront to the independence of the court and the integrity of the Rome Statute system."
"Such actions risk undermining global efforts to ensure accountability for the gravest crimes of concern to the international community and erode the shared commitment to the rule of law, the fight against impunity, and the preservation of a rules-based international order," they said.
The court said in another statement that it "deplores" the Trump administration's latest action, which "only emboldens those who believe they can act with impunity. These sanctions are not only directed at designated individuals, they also target all those who support the court, including nationals and corporate entities of states parties."
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the ICC has the "full support" of the European Union, which "deeply regrets" the sanctions. "The ICC holds perpetrators of the world’s gravest crimes to account and gives victims a voice," she said. "It must be free to act without pressure."
U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said he was "profoundly disturbed" by the sanctions, which undermine U.S. democracy. "Attacks against judges for performance of their judicial functions, at national or international levels," he said, "run directly counter to respect for the rule of law and the equal protection of the law – values for which the U.S. has long stood."
'Whatever actions we deem necessary'
Rubio's announcement on Thursday came as retaliation for the The Hague, Netherlands-based ICC's investigations of the U.S. military and arrest warrants issued for top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Neither country has ratified the Rome Statute.
An executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump targeted Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini Gansou of Benin; Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza of Peru; Beti Hohler of Slovenia; and Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda.
Bossa and Ibanez Carranza authorized an ICC probe of U.S. personnel in Afghanistan, according to the State Department, while Alapini Gansou and Hohler authorized ICC arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant.
"These four individuals have actively engaged in the ICC’s illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel," Rubio said. "ICC is politicized and falsely claims unfettered discretion to investigate, charge, and prosecute nationals of the United States and our allies."
Trump's order said the U.S. "will take whatever actions we deem necessary" to protect Israel and any other U.S. ally from ICC's "illegitimate actions."
Rubio's State Department said the U.S. would "block" any property, interests or entities that the judges own or control in the U.S., and prohibit anyone in the U.S. from providing them with "funds, goods, or services."
In February, Trump issued an order to block the ICC's chief prosecutor from pursuing a case against Israel over its war in Gaza. The order imposed asset freezes and travel bans against ICC staff and family members if they helped investigate U.S. citizens and allies.
The ICC, which is not part of the U.N. system, prosecutes crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes and aggression. It acts as a last resort when nations are unable or unwilling to dispense justice.
In his first administration from 2017 to 2021, Trump also imposed measures against the ICC chief prosecutor, the ICC head of jurisdiction and other personnel. The sanctions were a response to an ICC ruling in March 2020 that allowed for an inquiry to be launched into whether war crimes were committed in Afghanistan by the Taliban, Afghan military or American-led forces going back almost 18 years earlier.
The inquiry involved allegations of U.S. military and intelligence personnel illegally imprisoning, torturing and raping "conflict-related detainees" in Afghanistan and secret CIA facilities in Poland, Romania and Lithuania from 2003 to 2004. The U.S. signed the Rome Statute but the U.S. Senate never ratified it, arguing the court would infringe on U.S. sovereignty.
