US to seek dismantling of International Criminal Court
The US will launch a diplomatic campaign aimed at dismantling the International Criminal Court, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced July 6. In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, Rubio wrote that the US will work alongside allied governments to take the Court apart "brick by brick, if necessary," using all tools at the government's disposal. He said the campaign's message to other governments will be a choice of "sovereign states over globalism," and pledged that the administration will protect US service members from ICC jurisdiction.
Because the Court is a treaty body that only its member states can dissolve, the US lacks the authority to "dismantle" it. The op-ed does not detail specific measures, but a State Department official told Reuters that options under consideration include travel bans, visa revocations, expanded sanctions against the Court and affiliated entities, and diplomatic pressure on member states to withdraw. The official said countries that rely on US security assistance and decline to reject the Court's authority over Americans are likely to face increased scrutiny.
Rubio cited the Court's 2020 authorization of an investigation into the situation in Afghanistan, which included possible crimes by US forces, as well as more recent calls by activists and a former ICC prosecutor to treat Trump administration deportations and military strikes as international crimes. According to Reuters, the Court has taken no recent steps against US personnel, and since 2021 prosecutors have de-prioritized the US role in the Afghanistan investigation in favor of alleged Taliban and Afghan government crimes.
The ICC, established in 2002 under the Rome Statute and seated at The Hague in the Netherlands, has 125 states parties, including nearly every US treaty ally in Europe as well as the UK, Japan, South Korea and Australia. The US is not a member. President Bill Clinton signed the Rome Statute in 2000 but declined to submit it to the Senate, and Congress in 2002 passed legislation authorizing the president to use all means necessary to free US citizens detained by the Court.
The announced campaign departs from the approach of prior administrations of both parties, which maintained US non-membership while supporting international criminal justice in specific cases. The US helped establish the Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals in the 1990s (under Democrat Bill Clinton), and abstained from but did not veto the Security Council's referral of Darfur to the ICC in 2005 (under Republican George W. Bush). Washington supported the Security Council's referral of Libya in 2011, expanded its war crimes rewards program to cover ICC fugitives in 2012 (under Democrat Barack Obama), and initiated sharing of evidence with the Court's investigation of Russian conduct in Ukraine after it issued a 2023 arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin (under Democrat Joe Biden). In 2008, State Department legal adviser John Bellinger said it was "not the policy of the United States to try to kill the ICC."
An ICC spokesperson said the Court would not comment at this stage. Last month, three ICC judges sued Trump administration officials over sanctions imposed on them, arguing the measures were unlawful.
From JURIST, July 13. Used with permission. Internal links added.
Rights groups sue Trump administration over ICC sanctions
Two US-based advocacy groups sued President Donald Trump's administration on July 15, alleging that sanctions imposed by Trump on members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the UN impede the organizations' ability to engage in Palestinian-related human rights advocacy and therefore violate their First Amendment rights.
The sanctions in question stem from a 2025 Executive Order (EO) mandating that prosecutors and judges at the ICC face economic penalties for their involvement in the investigation of war crimes by US forces in Afghanistan and the issuance of an arrest warrant for US ally Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Over the past year, the US, a country that does not recognize the authority of the ICC, has expanded the sanctions to include some human rights organizations and UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for their support of the investigations.
Filed in federal court in Manhattan, the suit against high administration officials by advocacy nonprofits Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) and the Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide (TAAG) seeks a court order barring the administration from enforcing provisions of the EO that would prohibit US citizens from working with sanctioned individuals or supporting investigations into potential human rights abuse by the US.
Throughout their advocacy work, both organizations have worked closely with the ICC, the UN and Albanese, relying on collaborative research and preparing communications for the court and the public, documenting US officials’ role in aiding the commission of war crimes.
DAWN and TAAG assert in their complaint that the EO indicates individuals may face criminal prosecution and civil penalties for engaging with sanctioned parties and receiving or providing "any service." Because the word "service" is ambiguous and can be construed broadly, the organizations allege that they have had to self-censor in order to avoid scrutiny from the administration.
In addition to violating the First Amendment, DAWN and TAAG allege that Trump exceeded the boundaries of his presidential authority when he invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which prohibits the president from using economic sanctions to restrict communications and the transmission of information.
In a press release, Omar Shakir, executive director of DAWN, indicated that the sanctions unconstitutionally restrict US citizens from seeking justice and accountability. He stated:
The suit comes just days after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the US would launch a diplomatic campaign to dismantle the ICC.
In response, DAWN advocacy director Raed Jarrar stated: "When the world’s most powerful country aims to dismantle the world’s only permanent international court, it sends the message that the powerful are above the law. It is not the ICC that Rubio is dismantling brick by brick- but the rules-based international order that grew out of the ashes of World War II." (Jurist)
Trump-Mamdani showdown over Netanyahu arrest
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested on US soil, President Donald Trump declared July 20, an assurance that underscored a widening gap between international criminal law on paper and its enforcement in practice as Washington escalates its campaign against the court seeking his arrest.
"Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America," Trump wrote on social media, adding that Netanyahu is fighting Iran and that "the only ones that should be arrested" are Iran's leaders.
The statement followed remarks by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who said in an interview published July 18 that the city's Law Department is considering its options ahead of September, when Netanyahu typically travels to New York for the UN General Assembly's high-level gatherings.
"I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague. He's a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court. And what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many purely because of what his actions have wrought over these last many years," he said in an interview with the New York Times Magazine.
Mamdani, who took office in January, campaigned on a pledge to have police arrest Netanyahu if he entered the city.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Netanyahu and his then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza war. Israel rejects the court’s jurisdiction and denies committing war crimes. On July 19, the Prime Minister's Office called the warrant "bogus" and the court a "kangaroo court."
ICC member states have a duty to arrest and surrender suspects to the court. But despite its key role in shaping the court, the US is not a member state. Then-President Bill Clinton signed the court’s founding document, the Rome Statute, in the final days of his term in 2000, but he never submitted it to the Senate. In 2002, as the treaty took effect and the court opened, President George W. Bush's administration notified the UN that the US did not intend to become a party, a step the White House contended released Washington from any residual duty to honor an agreement it had signed. Congress that year passed the American Service-Members' Protection Act, barring most US cooperation with the court.
Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute. The ICC can issue an arrest warrant for a national of a non-member state when the alleged genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes were committed after July 1, 2002 in the territory of a state party or a state that has accepted the court's jurisdiction, or when the UN Security Council refers the situation to the prosecutor under Chapter VII. The Netanyahu warrant rests on conduct occurring in Palestinian territory rather than on Israel's membership.
In effect, Trump's declaration restates longstanding US policy, but it lands amid a broader assault on the court's authority, giving old policy new force.
The UN's presence in the city gives New York no additional authority. The 1947 headquarters agreement requires US authorities not to impede delegates’ travel to the UN district and bars local officials from entering the grounds on official business without the secretary-general's consent. But the district is not foreign soil. US law applies there. Customary international law grants sitting heads of government personal immunity from prosecution abroad, a principle the International Court of Justice affirmed in a 2002 ruling involving an incumbent foreign minister. US courts defer heavily to the executive branch on such matters. Foreign policy is a federal power, and harassing foreign officials is a federal crime. US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz cited these points, calling Mamdani’s position "pure political theater."
Mamdani has not said what legal theory the city might invoke. In the weekend interview, he said: "I will follow the laws that we have here in New York City because I believe that there is an importance in following the law as a leader who presides over our city… Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that’s what we will do, but we won’t be writing our own laws to that end." (Jurist)