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A U.S. senator has called on foreign leaders to impose sanctions on top U.S. officials as the Trump administration wages a campaign to dismantle the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) said that, if they “have any self-respect,” nations party to the ICC would take steps to stop the Trump administration’s meddling. It is extraordinary for such a call to come from a sitting member of congress.
“If European countries & other signatories to the International Criminal Court have any self-respect, they’d sanction Rubio & Trump for obstructing investigations of [Israel Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s war crimes,” the senator said in a post on social media on Monday.
When the Trump administration first announced sanctions against the court last year, a group of 79 countries, including major European powers like the U.K., France, and Germany, signed a statement opposing the move. “Such measures increase the risk of impunity for the most serious crimes and threaten to erode the international rule of law, which is crucial for promoting global order and security,” they wrote.
But, despite such statements, many of those nations have not taken decisive action to rein in the Trump administration — and, even further, have continued to capitulate to the administration on many repressive requests throughout Trump’s second term.
Van Hollen’s post came in response to a Wall Street Journal report that the administration is preparing yet more sweeping sanctions against the ICC. These sanctions, which have not been finalized, “forbid most transactions with the ICC after a grace period of six to seven months,” the Journal reports. Such sanctions could have wide-ranging consequences due to the U.S.’s vast control over global financial systems.
The sanctions sought by the Trump administration mark an escalation in its campaign against the ICC, the end goal of which, as Rubio has stated, is to “dismantle” the court. The U.S. has previously sanctioned individual members of the court, including the current president of the ICC, Tomoko Akane, as well as the lead prosecutor in the case against Netanyahu for crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Sanctions on the entire court could make it even harder for the ICC to carry out prosecutions of Netanyahu and other global leaders accused of committing human rights violations. Adil Haque, a professor of international law at Rutgers University, also noted on Monday that “Congress could pass a law stripping presidential power to sanction international institutions and their staff.”
The Trump administration has claimed that the ICC is a threat to American sovereignty. Analysts have said that the administration’s true goal is not to protect sovereignty, but to shield the U.S. and other allies from facing consequences for past and future abuses.
In his speech before the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, President Donald Trump reiterated his attacks on the ICC. He said that the ICC is an “evil group of people,” and called on all 125 member countries to “resign” from the body.
“We will never allow U.S. service members to be investigated or anyone else to be investigated, or given show trials by an anti-American tribunal with no jurisdiction over us,” Trump said.
His remarks came days after two separate UN reports suggested that U.S. officials could be investigated and prosecuted for war crimes in Iran and military actions in central and South America.
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