The administration of US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday, hours after one of its former judges received the Nobel Peace Prize.
This comes as the United States has not hesitated in recent months to pursue what Secretary of State Marco Rubio called a “broad campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court.”
Both the United States and Israel had strongly opposed the arrest warrants issued by the court against senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Since 2020 and the end of Trump’s first term, the United States has also opposed investigations into military actions in Afghanistan that “deprioritize” alleged US wrongdoing, focusing on the Taliban, but may nonetheless include them.
What has the State Department said about ICC sanctions?
“President Trump will never allow the International Court to prosecute Americans,” Rubio said in a statement.
“That’s why today the United States is sanctioning the International Criminal Court. We will prohibit transactions with this rogue court, cutting off its resources and crippling its ability to operate,” he said.
Rubio said both U.S. political parties have long agreed that the ICC should not have jurisdiction over U.S. citizens, but said “only President Trump” was committed to action.
“Either the ICC will end its threats or we will end the ICC. We expect our allies, many of whom are part of the ICC and who rely on the U.S. military for their defense, to move toward the Court,” Rubio said. “If they do not, the United States will continue its campaign to dismantle the ICC, brick by brick, until Americans are no longer threatened.”
How did the ICC react?
The ICC said the U.S. sanctions were aimed at hindering the creation of an independent international court supported by more than half of the U.N. members.
“The Court will continue to fully discharge its mandate, with independence and impartiality, acting solely on the basis of the law and evidence, in the interests of the countless victims of serious crimes,” said ICC President Tomoko Akane, who already faces US sanctions.
The ICC has called the Rome Statute, which underpins membership in the Court, a “collective promise” that the most serious international crimes must not go unpunished.
“This promise is only as strong as the determination of those who made it,” the court said. He called on members to take “concrete steps” to ensure that the Court will always have the means necessary to continue its work.
“No one should be punished for serving the cause of justice,” he said. “History will judge this moment. Future generations, and especially victims of mass atrocities, will wonder how we responded when an institution created to protect them was attacked.”
What have other countries said about US sanctions?
A group of U.S. allies who are full members of the ICC, including Germany, issued a joint statement reaffirming their “continued and unwavering support for the independence, impartiality, and integrity of the ICC.”
“As committed supporters of the ICC, we regret and strongly disagree with the announcement of the sanctions that will be imposed on the Court by the United States,” said the governments of Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
They said that, despite the ICC’s best efforts to prepare and mitigate their effects, the sanctions “will have a significant impact on the work of the Court, on its dedicated staff and on their families.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the US government for its “leadership” in imposing sanctions.
“The ICC is not a court. It is a political body that poses a mortal threat to law-abiding democracies around the world and to the very idea of national sovereignty,” he said.
Sanctions announced shortly after Nobel Peace Prize awarded to former ICC judge
The State Department released the announcement hours after the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Navi Pillay, an ICC judge from 2003 to 2012.
Last year, Trump repeatedly complained that he should have won the honor for promoting world peace, prompting Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado to give him his trophy as a gift.
Without naming names, the Nobel Committee clearly referred to US sanctions against the ICC when it announced Pillay as this year’s winner.
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee wants to remind the world that the rule of law, domestic and international, underpins the system we have put in place to guarantee peace and resolve conflicts non-violently,” the Committee wrote.
He says judges like Pillay “guard the thin red line between order and chaos,” but laments that “today… these same judges are being sanctioned and their institutions are being attacked.”
What is the ICC?
The International Criminal Court is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal based in the Dutch city of The Hague.
It is the only permanent international tribunal with theoretical jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for international crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and unlawful aggression.
The ICC was established in 2002 and is governed by the Rome Statute.
More than half of the world’s countries, 125 in total, are full parties to the Rome Statute, having signed and ratified it.
Several of the world’s most important powers, including China, India, Israel, Russia and the United States, do not recognize the Court’s jurisdiction and are not parties to the statute.
A gray area remains, however, since the Court accepts challenges from ratified members against individuals from countries that do not recognize it.
That’s why high-profile arrest warrants against Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, and Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have been issued in recent years – following complaints from Ukrainians and Palestinians respectively.
What were the first signs of pressure from the Trump administration on the ICC?
The United States has been increasingly critical of the ICC during Trump’s second term.
Rubio has often led the charge. In July, he wrote an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal
He argued that it was possible that American “soldiers, police officers, border patrol agents and elected leaders” would be “brought before an international tribunal” and tried by judges “from randomly selected countries around the world.”
Just over a week later, on July 25, the new Venezuelan administration – transformed after the US kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro in January – announced its intention to withdraw from the Rome Statute and the ICC.
A few days later, Chad’s military junta announced its withdrawal from the ICC at the request of the United States.
The recent sexual misconduct scandal surrounding the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, who was removed from office in July, has provided the United States with more ammunition for the court.
In August, the United States imposed sanctions on the ICC president, Japanese judge Tomoko Akane, and Abdoulaye Seye, a Senegalese litigator at the court.
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Edited by: Sean Sinico
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