Tag Archives: ICC

Trump Targets ICC With Sanctions as Pillay’s Nobel Prize Puts Global Justice in Spotlight

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US President Donald Trump’s administration has imposed sweeping sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), potentially targeting companies that provide services to the tribunal, just hours after former ICC judge Navi Pillay won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for her work promoting international justice.

The move escalates Washington’s confrontation with the court, which has investigated alleged crimes involving US personnel and issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other figures. It also puts the United States on a collision course with European allies that support the court’s work.

The ICC condemned the sanctions as an “assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order” and urged its 125 member states to defend the institution.

“The Court cannot stand alone. Its fate now rests also in the hands of the states that created it,” the court said in a statement, warning that the dispute concerned the future of an international order grounded in the rule of law.

The timing has sharpened the political significance of the confrontation. The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Pillay the Peace Prize on October 9, explicitly citing the political attacks faced by judges and international legal institutions.

Rubio Says US Will Cut Off ICC Resources

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the sanctions were intended to prevent the ICC from prosecuting Americans.

“President Trump will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans,” Rubio said in a statement first reported by Reuters.

“That is why, today, the United States is sanctioning the International Criminal Court. We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling its ability to operate.”

The sanctions go beyond Washington’s earlier measures against individual ICC prosecutors and judges. They could affect banks, insurers, software providers and other companies that work with the court, potentially disrupting its access to financial services and essential technology.

The US Treasury announced an initial six-month grace period, alongside exemptions for certain transactions involving telecommunications, software, pension payments and detainees.

Rubio said the measures were structured to give the court and its member states an opportunity to address US concerns. Washington indicated that the sanctions could be adjusted if those demands were met.

The United States signed the Rome Statute that established the ICC but never ratified it. Washington has long argued that the court should not exercise jurisdiction over American citizens without US consent.

The ICC was established in 2002 to prosecute individuals accused of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression under the conditions set out in its founding treaty.

European Allies Rally Behind International Court

The sanctions have raised concerns among US allies in Europe, where governments fear that restrictions on the ICC could undermine international investigations and prosecutions.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the six-month grace period offered an opportunity for dialogue but warned that the bloc had options to ensure the court could continue its work.

Belgium’s foreign minister called for the activation of an EU blocking statute designed to protect European entities from the effects of certain foreign sanctions.

The ICC’s deputy prosecutor, Nazhat Shameem Khan, said the measures were intended to undermine an independent judicial institution.

“The sanctions are intended to undermine the rule of law internationally and the work that an independent judicial institution is doing,” Khan told media. “Our work will continue across all our situations, our investigations and our prosecutions.”

The court has issued arrest warrants against more than 70 people, including Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin. It has also pursued cases involving figures linked to conflicts in Sudan, Libya and other regions.

Washington’s opposition has focused particularly on the court’s actions involving Israeli officials and its past investigation into alleged crimes by US personnel in Afghanistan. The ICC has said the Afghanistan investigation involving US personnel has been deprioritised.

Nobel Prize Puts International Justice at Centre of Dispute

Pillay, a South African jurist and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, served on the ICC’s Appeals Chamber from 2003 to 2008.

The Nobel Committee said her award was intended to reaffirm support for international justice at a time when judges and institutions of international law were facing political attacks.

“An international legal system in which war criminals are held to account and the victims of abuse see justice served is a precondition for a peaceful world,” the committee said.

The juxtaposition of the award and the US sanctions has turned a longstanding legal dispute into a wider diplomatic confrontation over the authority of international courts.

The ICC’s immediate challenge will be to maintain access to essential services and continue its investigations and prosecutions. Its longer-term position will depend partly on whether member states can shield the institution from the sanctions’ effects.

For Washington, the measures reflect the administration’s determination to resist ICC jurisdiction over Americans. For the court and its supporters, the confrontation raises a broader question: whether international judicial institutions can pursue accountability for grave crimes when powerful governments reject their authority.

World News in Brief: ‘Indifference and impunity’ in Sudan, ICC judges speak out against sanctions, respiratory diseases overlooked in Europe

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Tom Fletcher noted that over 30 million people require humanitarian assistance. Moreover, with famine declared in multiple places and over 14.6 million people displaced, Sudan represents the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.

“Again and again, the international community has said that we will protect the people of Sudan. The people of Sudan should ask us if, when and how we will start to deliver on that promise,” the relief chief said.

When will the international community fully fund aid efforts in Sudan?

When will accountability for the violence in Sudan happen?

He called on the international community to stop acting with ‘indifference and impunity’ towards Sudan,

Health system ‘smashed to pieces’

Since the conflict in Sudan broke out in April 2022, civilian infrastructure across the country has been damaged or destroyed, including health facilities and water and sanitation systems. 

The health system in particular has been “smashed to pieces,” according to Mr. Fletcher, leading to increasingly dire measles and cholera outbreaks.

The cholera outbreak, which began in July 2024 and is now confirmed in 13 of Sudan’s 18 states, has infected more than 74,000 people in total and killed 1,826.

“I have seen first-hand the devastation caused by the cholera outbreak in Khartoum, where the health system has been devastated by conflict and is struggling to cope with the tremendous demand on health facilities,” Dr. Shible Sahbni, WHO representative in Sudan.

The World Health Organization (WHO), in partnership with the Sudanese Ministry of Health, is launching a 10-day cholera vaccination campaign in Khartoum State.

The campaign will aim to reach 2.6 million people in an effort to contain the cholera outbreak in the state.

“The vaccines will help stop cholera in its tracks as we strengthen other response interventions,” said Dr. Sahbni.

 

ICC judges express support for colleagues sanctioned by US

Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) expressed solidarity with their colleagues who have recently been sanctioned by the United States Government, describing the move as “coercive measures aimed at undermining the independence of the judiciary.”

“The Judges stand united and will continue to exercise their functions independently, impartially and conscientiously, fulfilling the demands of the rule of law,” they said in a statement on Thursday.

The US announced sanctions on 6 June against four judges from Benin, Peru, Slovenia and Uganda. The justices are currently overseeing a 2020 case which alleges war crimes in Afghanistan committed by the US and Afghan armies and the 2024 ICC arrest warrants issued for sitting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

The International Court of Justice

The UN Human Rights Chief Volter Türk previously said that he was “deeply disturbed” by these sanctions, arguing that they corroded international governance and justice.

No improper influence

The ICC is an independent judicial body established under the Rome Statute, adopted in 1998. Although not part of the United Nations, the ICC works closely with it under a cooperative framework.

In the statement, the Judges said that they decide, and will continue to decide, cases based on facts and without regard to threats, restrictions or improper influence issued “from any quarter or for any reason.”

“The Judges reaffirm that they are equal in the performance of their functions and that they will always uphold the principle of equality before the law.”

Over 80 Million Europeans suffering from overlooked chronic respiratory diseases

Chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma are vastly underestimated, underdiagnosed and poorly managed in Europe – affecting 80 million people and costing $21 billion a year, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

A new report by WHO Europe and the European Respiratory Society highlights how smoking and air pollution are driving the growing crisis.

“We take 22,000 breaths a day, yet respiratory health remains one of the most neglected areas in global health,” said Professor Silke Ryan, President of the European Respiratory Society.

6th leading cause of death

Data analysis shows that chronic respiratory illnesses are the sixth leading cause of death in Europe. They are often misdiagnosed owing to weak diagnostic systems, limited training and inadequate health data.

Although effective treatments are available, asthma-related deaths remain high among young people, while chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is responsible for eight in 10 respiratory disease deaths.

As preparations begin for the 2025 UN High-Level Meeting on non-communicable diseases, WHO Europe urged governments to prioritize chronic respiratory disease, set measurable targets and tackle root causes like tobacco and air pollution.

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US decision to sanction ICC judges ‘deeply corrosive’ to justice: UN rights chief

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Mr. Türk was responding to an announcement by Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, on Thursday, of measures targeting the judges, who are overseeing a 2020 case of alleged war crime committed in Afghanistan by US and Afghan military forces, and the 2024 ICC arrest warrants issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the former Defence Minister.

“I am profoundly disturbed by the decision of the Government of the United States of America to sanction judges of the International Criminal Court – specifically four women judges, from Benin, Peru, Slovenia and Uganda – who had been part of rulings in the situations in Afghanistan or in the State of Palestine,” said Türk, who called for the prompt reconsideration and withdrawal of the measures.

Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, briefs a General Assembly informal meeting on missing persons.

The sanctions, the statement continues, attack the judges for performing their judicial functions, an act which, he said, runs “directly counter to respect for the rule of law and the equal protection of the law – values for which the U.S. has long stood.”

The statement by Mr. Türk follows the ICC’s strongly worded press release on Thursday, describing the sanctions as “a clear attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution which operates under the mandate from 125 States Parties from all corners of the globe.”

The ICC reinforced its position on Friday with a release from the Assembly of State Parties –the management oversight and legislative body of the court – rejecting the US sanctions which, it declared, “risk undermining global efforts to ensure accountability for the gravest crimes of concern to the international community and erode the shared commitment to the rule of law, the fight against impunity, and the preservation of a rules-based international order.”

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