The United States sanctioned the International Criminal Court (ICC), hours after one of its former judges received the Nobel Peace Prize, which the Nobel committee said was in part a show of support for the institutions under attack.
South African judge Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, currently a judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also in The Hague, was announced as the winner of the prize on Friday.
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Nobel committee chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes said the international law system was “under enormous pressure” and its institutions were “under attack”.
“By awarding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wants to remind the world that the rule of law – national and international – underpins the system we have put in place to guarantee peace and resolve conflicts non-violently. Peace requires justice,” the committee said.
The US decision follows sanctions it has already imposed this year on judges and other ICC staff.
Here’s what we know:
What did the United States announce?
On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the latest round of US sanctions targeting the ICC, this time focusing on the court itself, created in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
“We will prohibit 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,” he said in a video shared on social media.
The Trump administration says the ICC has exceeded its authority by prosecuting non-member countries. 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 for alleged war crimes in Gaza. She also opened an investigation into the actions of American soldiers in Afghanistan.
The United States and Israel are not parties to the Rome Statute, the treaty that establishes the Court’s jurisdiction. However, abuses committed by citizens of non-statutory states in ICC territories or countries can still be prosecuted.
“Either the ICC will end its threats or we will end the ICC,” Rubio said in a statement, adding that if U.S. allies fail to “bring the Court under control,” the United States “will continue its campaign to dismantle the ICC, brick by brick.”
What other sanctions has the United States imposed on the ICC?
These sanctions are only the latest in the American campaign against the ICC. Previous measures have targeted dozens of ICC judges and prosecutors, the United Nations special rapporteur for Palestine, Francesca Albanese, and Palestinian rights groups who have provided the court with evidence of war crimes committed by Israel.
In August, ICC President Tomoko Akane and lawyer Abdoulaye Sey were also sanctioned by the United States, part of what Rubio called the United States’ unwavering mission to protect Americans from this sham court.
Any assets they hold in the United States are frozen, and American companies are limited in their transactions with them.
>What do the latest sanctions mean in practice?
Sanctions targeting the court could penalize companies that provide services to it. They will also freeze all ICC assets held in US territories.
However, they gave U.S. companies a six-month grace period to conclude any pending cases with the court. There are also other exemptions allowing certain transactions.
William Schabas, professor of international law at Middlesex University in London, told Al Jazeera that the court has been “developing a plan B” for more than a year to circumvent possible sanctions.
This involves migrating to European alternatives to American software and ending its relationship with the insurance company Axa, which does business with the United States.
“It remains to be seen how significant this measure will be,” he said. “Obviously, for the institution, this will complicate things considerably.”
What were the responses to this?
“What Trump is trying to do is make the world safer 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 decision, which it considers an attempt to “obstruct the course of justice” and intimidate those working or cooperating with the Court.
“This is an attack on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order that undermines the simple principle that no one is above the law,” he said, calling on his 125 state parties to take action to ensure he can continue his work.
“History will judge this moment. Future generations, and especially victims of mass atrocities, will wonder how we reacted when an institution created to protect them was attacked,” the text adds.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply alarmed” by the decision, adding that it was “a major blow to our collective quest for international criminal justice”.
The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada and Japan all said they “strongly disagreed” with the sanctions and warned of the significant impact they would have on the court.
Netanyahu thanked Trump for his leadership on social media and accused the ICC of being a “political body that poses a deadly threat to law-abiding democracies around the world.”
Is the United States eroding the system of international law?
The United States’ targeting of the ICC threatens the rule of law, as international courts and tribunals must be able to operate without the threat of sanctions.
The United States itself has repeatedly ignored international law under President Trump. Its joint attack on Iran with Israel in February was criticized by observers as a violation of both US law and Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, while the US military kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas in January was also condemned as illegal.
The Trump administration has also launched strikes on suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific, killing more than 200 people, in what U.N. human rights experts call “extrajudicial and illegal.”
Under Trump, the United States has also withdrawn from international organizations and agreements, from the Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and the Paris climate accord during Trump’s 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, it is a crime to intimidate or threaten court officials because of their official duties. »
“But the Court remains strong, it is fully capable of doing its job,” he said, adding: “The Court has important work to do to protect victims in countries like Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, Afghanistan and the Philippines. It is work that must continue, and it will.”
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