US sanctions International Criminal Court itself in latest escalation

Latest action seeks to stem resources to international tribunal Trump administration has vowed to dismantle. Save Share United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announceda new set of sanctionsagainst the International Criminal Court (ICC), this time targeting the entity itself, as opposed to the tribunal’s officials or groups that provide support. The announcement on Friday represented the latest escalation from the administration of US President Donald Trump, which has vowed an “all of government” approach to dismantling the court. “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.” As justification for its actions, the administration has pointed to the court’s ongoing investigation into abuses committed in Afghanistan, which could ensnare US military and intelligence personnel, as well as the ICC’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes committed in Gaza. Before Friday’s actions, the US had sanctioned ICC judges and prosecutors, a UN special rapporteur focusing on the occupied Palestinian territories and Palestinian rights groups that have provided evidence to the court. Several rights groups have challenged those sanctions in US federal court, saying restricting how US citizens interact with the court treads on their constitutional freedoms. Sanctioned ICC judges have also launched legal challenges in the US. Speaking to the Reuters news agency on Friday, deputy prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan said 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,” ⁠⁠Khan said. “Our work will continue across all our ‌‌situations, our investigations and our ‌‌prosecutions.” The US and Israel are not parties to the Rome Statute, the founding treaty that establishes the court’s jurisdiction. However, the court has long ruled that abuses committed by US or Israeli citizens on the territories of countries that are ICC members can be prosecuted. To date, the court has not sought to prosecute any US citizens....