Why is the US sanctioning the International Criminal Court?

The United States has sanctioned the International Criminal Court (ICC), hours after one of its former judges was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in what the Nobel committee said was, in part, a show of support for institutions under attack.

South African judge Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, who is currently a judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also in The Hague, was announced winner of the prize on Friday.

Nobel Committee Chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes said the system of international law was “under tremendous pressure” and its institutions were “under attack”.

“In awarding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wants to remind the world that the rule of law – national and international – underpins the system we have set up to ensure peace and resolve conflicts non-violently. Peace requires justice,” the committee said.

The US move follows sanctions it has already imposed this year on judges and other personnel at the ICC.

Here’s what we know:

What has the US announced?

On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the latest set of US sanctions targeting the ICC, this time focusing on the court itself, which was established in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

“We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling their ability to operate against us because our message is clear: the United States and the American people are not subject to the jurisdiction of this fake ICC,” he said in a video shared on social media.

The Trump administration claims that the ICC has gone beyond its remit by pursuing non-member countries. In 2024, the Trump administration condemned the court when it issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for suspected war crimes in Gaza. It also previously opened an investigation into the actions of US soldiers in Afghanistan.

The US and Israel are not parties to the Rome Statute, the treaty that establishes the court’s jurisdiction. However, abuses committed by citizens of non-statute states in ICC territories or countries can still be prosecuted.

“Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC,” Rubio said in a statement, adding that if the US allies failed to “rein in the court”, the US would “continue its campaign to dismantle the ICC, brick by brick”.

What other sanctions has the US imposed on the ICC?

These sanctions are just the latest in the US’s campaign against the ICC. Previous measures have targeted dozens of ICC judges and prosecutors, the UN special rapporteur for Palestine, Francesca Albanese, and Palestinian rights groups which have provided evidence of war crimes committed by Israel to the court.

In August, ICC President Tomoko Akane and senior lawyer Abdoulaye Sey were also sanctioned by the US, in what Rubio said was the US’s unwavering mission to protect Americans from this sham of a court”.

Any assets they hold in the US are frozen, and US companies are limited in conducting transactions with them.

>What do the latest sanctions mean in practice?

The sanctions targeting the court could see companies that provide services to it penalised. They will also freeze any ICC assets held in US territories.

However, they have given US companies a six-month grace period to wrap up any existing business with the court. There are also some other exemptions allowing for certain transactions.

William Schabas, a professor of international law at Middlesex University in London, told Al Jazeera that the court has been “developing a plan B” to get around potential sanctions for more than a year.

This includes migrating to European alternatives to US software, and ending its relationship with insurance company Axa, which does business with the US.

“How significant this will be remains to be seen,” he said. “Obviously for the institution, it’s going to complicate things considerably.”

What have the responses to this been?

“What Trump is trying to do is to make the world safe for American and Israeli war criminals,” Kenneth Roth, a senior fellow at Yale University and former executive director of Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera.

The ICC itself released a statement condemning the US move, which it said was an attempt to “obstruct the course of justice” and intimidate those who work or cooperate with the court.

“It is an assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order which strikes at the simple principle that no one stands above the law,” it said, calling on its 125 states parties to take action to ensure it can continue its work.

“History will judge this moment. Future generations, and above all the victims of mass atrocities, will ask how we responded when an institution created to protect them came under attack,” it added.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply alarmed” by the decision, adding that it was “a serious blow to our collective pursuit of international criminal justice”.

The foreign ministers of the UK, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada and Japan all said they “strongly disagree” with the sanctions, and warned of the significant impact they would have on the court.

Netanyahu thanked Trump for his leadership on social media, and accused the ICC of being a “political body that poses a mortal threat to law-abiding democracies worldwide”.

Is the US eroding the system of international law?

The US targeting of the ICC threatens the rule of law, as international courts and tribunals must be able to operate without the threat of sanctions.

The US itself has repeatedly ignored international law under President Trump. Its joint attack on Iran with Israel in February was criticised by observers as being in violation of both US law and Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, while the US military abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from Caracas in January was also condemned as illegal.

The Trump administration has also launched strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific, killing more than 200 people in what UN human rights experts warn are “extrajudicial and unlawful“.

Under Trump, the US has also pulled out of international organisations and agreements, from the Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and the Paris Climate Agreement during Trump’s first term, to the World Health Organization and the UN Human Rights Council, more recently.

“What Trump is doing is obstructing justice,” Roth said of the ICC sanctions. “If you look at Article 70 of the Rome Statute, it makes it a crime to intimidate or threaten court officials because of their official duties.”

“But the court remains strong, it is very capable of doing its work,” he said, adding, “there’s important work for the court to do to protect victims in places like Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, Afghanistan, the Philippines. This is work that should continue, and it will.”