US Sanctions International Criminal Court: A New Escalation in the Campaign Against the ICC

The United States has imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), just hours after a former judge of the court was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee said the award was partly meant to express support for institutions under attack.

South African judge Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, now a judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also based in The Hague, was announced as the laureate on Friday. Nobel Committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said the international legal system is under “tremendous pressure” and its institutions are “being attacked.”

“By awarding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wants to remind the world that the rule of law – at national and international level – is the foundation of the system we have built to ensure peace and resolve conflict through non-violent means. Peace requires justice,” the committee said.

The US move follows sanctions Washington has imposed this year on ICC judges and other personnel.

What has the US announced?

On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the latest US sanctions targeting the ICC, this time focused on the court itself, established in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

“We will ban transactions with this lawless court, cut off its resources and cripple its ability to operate against us, because our message is clear: the United States and the American people are not subject to this fake ICC’s jurisdiction,” Rubio said in a video shared on social media.

The Trump administration argues the ICC has overstepped its authority by pursuing non-member states. In 2024, the Trump administration condemned the court when it issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over suspected war crimes in Gaza. The ICC had also previously opened an investigation into the actions of US soldiers in Afghanistan.

The US and Israel are not parties to the Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the court’s jurisdiction. However, violations by citizens of non-member states on the territory of, or in, ICC member states can still be prosecuted.

“Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC,” Rubio declared, adding that if US allies do not “restrain the court,” the US will “continue the campaign to dismantle the ICC, brick by brick.”

What other sanctions has the US imposed on the ICC?

This is only the latest move in the US campaign against the ICC. Earlier measures targeted dozens of ICC judges and prosecutors, UN special rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese, and Palestinian human rights groups that had provided evidence of Israeli war crimes to the court.

In August, ICC President Tomoko Akane and senior lawyer Abdoulaye Sey were also sanctioned by the US. Rubio said at the time this was America’s unwavering mission to protect Americans from this “sham court.” All assets of those sanctioned in the US are frozen, and US companies are restricted from doing business with them.

What do the latest sanctions mean in practice?

Sanctions aimed at the court itself could expose companies that provide services to the ICC to penalties. They will also freeze any ICC assets on US territory.

However, the US is granting US companies a six-month extension to wind up existing business with the court, along with certain other exemptions for specific transactions.

International law professor William Schabas of Middlesex University in London told Al Jazeera the court had been “building a Plan B” to deal with potential sanctions for more than a year. This includes switching to European software solutions instead of US ones, and ending its relationship with insurer Axa – which has operations in the US.

“The extent of the impact remains to be seen,” he said. “Clearly, for this institution, everything will become considerably more complicated.”

What has been the reaction?

“What Trump is trying to do is make the world safe for American and Israeli war criminals,” Kenneth Roth, a senior fellow at Yale University and former executive director of Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera.

The ICC itself issued a statement condemning the US move, calling it an effort to “obstruct the course of justice” and threatening those who work for or cooperate with the court. “This is an attack on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order, striking at the simple principle that no one is above the law,” the statement said, calling on its 125 member states to act so the court can continue its work.

“History will judge this moment. Future generations, and above all the victims of the most serious crimes, will ask how we responded when an institution created to protect them came under attack,” the statement added.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply alarmed” by the decision, calling it “a serious blow to our collective pursuit of international criminal justice.”

The foreign ministers of the UK, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada and Japan all said they “completely disagree” with the sanctions, warning of significant consequences for the court.

Netanyahu thanked Trump for his leadership on social media, accusing the ICC of being “a political body that poses an existential threat to law-abiding democracies around the world.”

Is the US eroding the international legal system?

The US targeting of the ICC threatens the rule of law, because international courts and tribunals need to be able to operate without the threat of sanctions.

Under President Trump, the US itself has repeatedly disregarded international law. The joint attack with Israel on Iran in February was criticized by observers as violating both US law and Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, while the US military’s abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from Caracas in January was also condemned as unlawful.

The Trump administration has also carried out strikes on vessels accused of drug smuggling in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing more than 200 people. UN human rights experts warned these were “extrajudicial and unlawful killings.”

Under Trump, the US has also withdrawn from numerous international organizations and agreements, from the Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and the Paris climate accord during his first term, to the World Health Organization and the UN Human Rights Council more recently.

“What Trump is doing is obstructing justice,” Roth said of the ICC sanctions. “If you look at Article 70 of the Rome Statute, threatening or intimidating court officials because of their official duties is a crime.”

“But the court remains strong and very much capable of doing its work,” he said, adding that “there is important work the court needs to do to protect victims in places like Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, Afghanistan and the Philippines. This is work that should continue, and it will continue.”