LONDON, August 17 (IPS) – In a current Wall Road Journal piece, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pledged to ‘dismantle’ the Worldwide Felony Court docket (ICC). The Trump administration intends to stress states into quitting the courtroom, threatening sanctions, journey bans, visa restrictions and ‘elevated scrutiny’ of states that obtain its funding. At stake is the courtroom’s capacity to face with victims of the gravest of human rights crimes.
Difficult impunity
Established in 2002 following years of civil society advocacy, the ICC prosecutes atrocities, together with crimes towards humanity, genocide and battle crimes, when nationwide or regional courts can’t or gained’t. It prosecutes people, and nationwide leaders take pleasure in no immunity. It has secured a number of convictions, together with of warlords from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali and Rwanda. Amongst ongoing instances, former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte awaits trial on crimes towards humanity prices. Civil society performs a key position in amassing proof. Filipino women-led teams, for instance, have documented 1000’s of extrajudicial killings.
The courtroom has 125 members, however the USA is amongst a number of highly effective states, together with China, India, Israel and Russia, which have by no means joined. US hostility intensified in 2020, when the ICC opened an investigation into crimes towards humanity and battle crimes in Afghanistan, together with these dedicated by US forces.
A present US marketing campaign might benefit the courtroom’s consideration. Within the Caribbean Sea and japanese Pacific Ocean, the US navy is bombing boats it claims are being utilized by drug cartels to smuggle fentanyl and different illicit substances. It began the strikes as a method of constructing stress on then Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, however has continued after US forces invaded Venezuela and kidnapped him, now seemingly with the aim of speaking US energy and contempt for worldwide guidelines.
US forces have killed over 200 individuals. All are civilians, leaving little doubt the strikes are unlawful beneath worldwide regulation. Final October, a bunch of UN human rights specialists concluded that the strikes quantity to extrajudicial executions. UN human rights chief Volker Türk referred to as for an investigation, saying he believed the marketing campaign violated worldwide regulation. The USA responded by lining up with Israel, North Korea and Russia to oppose Türk’s second time period.
The victims embody nationals of Colombia, St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago, all ICC members. The ICC might examine any strikes carried out in member states’ territorial waters or towards vessels registered with them.
Defending Netanyahu
Donald Trump can be decided to defend his prize ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He’s mentioned as a lot, undermining Rubio’s lofty rhetoric about sovereignty. In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for crimes towards humanity and battle crimes towards Netanyahu, former defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, later confirmed to have been killed by Israel. Israel doesn’t recognise the courtroom, however the warrants stand as a result of Palestine does.
Netanyahu’s warrant is again within the headlines as a result of he’s because of go to New York for the annual high-level opening of the UN Common Meeting in September. Mayor Zohran Mamdani has referred to as for his arrest, however the Trump administration has confirmed it is going to ignore the warrant. This will likely have fuelled the most recent offensive, which works additional than the Trump administration’s 2025 choice to impose sanctions on 9 ICC judges and officers. Early in his second presidency, Trump issued an govt order that declared a ‘nationwide emergency’, arguing the courtroom was a menace to the USA and Israel, and pledging sanctions towards anybody who takes half in its investigations. The order was used to impose sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN Particular Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Fearing criminalisation, US-based organisations could really feel pressured to finish cooperation with the ICC. Final 12 months, two US-based civil society organisations pulled out of the ICC’s annual assembly. Civil society is nevertheless preventing again. In July, two US teams filed a lawsuit towards the Trump administration, arguing the sanctions violate constitutional free speech protections.
Worldwide system beneath assault
The Trump administration’s assault on the ICC is a part of its broader assault on the worldwide system, and notably its human rights features. It’s withdrawing from some our bodies, defunding others, making an attempt to bend others to its will, forming options it controls, such because the Board of Peace, and displaying outright hostility in direction of these seen to face in its method.
The USA isn’t the one one. Three military-run Sahel allies – Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger – have begun their withdrawal from the ICC, a course of that takes a 12 months. They beforehand stop the Financial Group of West African States, together with its Group Court docket of Justice, leaving victims of human rights atrocities amid jihadist insurgency with no worldwide routes to justice.
Venezuela set the identical course beneath Maduro. Final December, parliament voted to repeal the regulation ratifying the Rome Statute, the treaty by which states settle for the courtroom’s jurisdiction. That path hasn’t modified beneath US-compliant Interim President Delcy Rodriguez, whose authorities just lately declared its withdrawal ‘irrevocable’. The US authorities has welcomed the choice, which can deny justice each to victims of Maduro’s repression and the households of Venezuelans killed in boat strikes.
Others have rallied to the courtroom’s defence. A European Union spokesperson mentioned the bloc ‘stands agency’ behind it. Hungary, which beneath right-wing nationalist Viktor Orbán had dedicated to pulling out, reversed that call beneath its new authorities.
Time to rally spherical
The courtroom faces this onslaught whereas leaderless. On 24 July, member states voted to take away chief prosecutor Karim Khan following disciplinary proceedings triggered by a sexual abuse grievance from a former workers member. It’s very important that his substitute be a robust and unbiased chief who can proceed the courtroom’s work.
The ICC is beneath assault by the Trump administration due to its promise to carry the highly effective to account. Its member states should defend the precept that nobody is above the regulation by refusing to bow to US stress.
Andrew Firmin is CIVICUS Editor-in-Chief, co-director and author for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.
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