The International Criminal Court (ICC) strongly pushed back on Friday after the U.S. imposed new sanctions on its financial assets, slamming the move as “an assault on the rule of law.”
ICC President Tomoko Akane said in a video shared to the court’s website that it “firmly rejects” the U.S.’s retaliation, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Friday morning as former ICC judge Navi Pillay was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. The Trump administration previously sanctioned Akane in August.
Akane called the latest financial penalties an “attack” on the countries that created the ICC and on international legal order.
“It is an attack on the victims of mass atrocities who have waited years, sometimes decades, for those to be held to account,” she said.
The international judicial body, based in The Hague, Netherlands, was created in 2002 to address global atrocities when countries are unable or fail to intervene.
The ICC has pursued war crimes cases against U.S.-allied Israel over its military offensive in Gaza. Pillay, who received Nobel recognition for her contributions to boosting the impact of international law, recently oversaw a United Nations report that concluded that Israeli forces committed genocide in the region.
In a video shared on social media announcing these sanctions, Rubio cited the court’s efforts to prosecute American citizens, despite the U.S. not being a member of the ICC.
“We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling their ability to operate against us,” Rubio said. “Because our message is clear: the United States and the American people are not subject to the jurisdiction of this fake ICC.”
Rubio also called on U.S. allies who are members of the ICC to “rein in this rogue court.”
Akane said that global leadership must now choose between “a world where might is right” or “a future based on the rule of law.”
“In the face of such attacks, we cannot remain indifferent. All of us, including state parties, have a legal and moral duty to act in defense of the international order,” the judge said. “To stand up for law, not force. We will be judged by history for the choices we make today.”
“I pledge to you: The International Criminal Court will continue its work undeterred, with the firm resolve that justice must prevail,” she continued.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk also denounced the Trump administration’s sanctions on the ICC as “unacceptable” and called for the U.S. to withdraw them in a statement his office released Friday.
“It is abundantly clear in all the conflicts and crises that plague our world that impunity fuels violence and suffering,” Türk said. “We need to be investing more in ensuring justice and accountability — rather than penalizing those who are documenting, investigating and prosecuting serious violations.”
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