Efforts to Isolate ICC Aim to Erode Global Legal Order, Governing Body Leaders Warn

Efforts to isolate the International Criminal Court are aimed at weakening confidence in the international legal order itself, the current and former leaders of the court’s governing body said in a joint op-ed.

The statement appeared on the Just Security law and policy journal’s website as the Trump administration intensifies pressure on the Hague-based court. The authors included Paivi Kaukoranta, president of the Assembly of States Parties, and seven former presidents of the body.

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Efforts to isolate the Court diplomatically, whether by encouraging States Parties to withdraw from the Rome Statute or urging non-States Parties to join measures intended to weaken it, are aimed at eroding not only one institution, but confidence in the international legal order itself.

They argued that defending the ICC means preserving a system intended to prevent impunity and lawlessness. The choice, they wrote, is “between a world based on the rule of law and one where might decides what is right.”

The Trump administration has sanctioned ICC judges and officials, including court president Tomoko Akane and a senior trial lawyer. Washington is also pressing other countries to leave the institution, a campaign that has led to lawsuits and concerns among some US allies.

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Defending the ICC is about preserving the international legal order as we have built it, as humanity’s strongest safeguard against a descent into lawlessness and impunity.

The ICC was created in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. It claims jurisdiction when a member state cannot or will not prosecute alleged atrocities itself. The United States is not a member, but Washington has objected strongly to the court’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during Israel’s assault on Gaza, as well as to a previous investigation into US troops in Afghanistan.

“The Trump Administration’s campaign to disable the ICC’s ability to operate, target American servicemen or officials, or otherwise threaten American sovereignty will continue,” State Department spokeswoman Paloma Chacon said.

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The Trump Administration’s campaign to disable the ICC’s ability to operate, target American servicemen or officials, or otherwise threaten American sovereignty will continue.