Global: States must push back against reprehensible US campaign to dismantle the ICC

In response to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's announcement of a campaign to "systematically disable" the International Criminal Court's "ability to operate", Amnesty International's Secretary General Agnès Callamard said:

"The Secretary of State's reprehensible attack on the ICC is the latest in a series of escalating and existential assaults by the Trump administration on the very idea of international justice and a rules-based order, and on the international institutions painstakingly put in place over the last 80 years to ensure global peace and stability. This attack came on the very day the ICC's Deputy Prosecutor was in Chad meeting Darfuri victims of war crimes and atrocities in Sudan. The contrast could not be starker: while victims seek justice, the US government is seeking to undermine one of the world's most important mechanisms for delivering it.

"In trying to discredit the Court, Rubio instead highlights its very purpose: ensuring accountability when those with the power to act choose not to. His arguments read like a tacit admission of wrongdoing – suggesting concerns that US officials could one day be held accountable for actions that may amount to crimes under international law, including deporting people to torture in El Salvador's prisons or the campaign of extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. The only reason he would have to fear the ICC is if US officials have committed such crimes outside the United States and the US government is unwilling to hold them genuinely accountable."

"The ICC exists to deliver justice for the victims and survivors of atrocities around the world and hold the most powerful perpetrators accountable for their crimes. By threatening increased sanctions against the ICC and affiliated organizations, visa revocations and travel bans for ICC personnel, and heightened diplomatic pressure on other states to withdraw from the Court and oppose it, the US government is stepping up its campaign for a world without rules and without justice.

"If other states bow to this pressure, they will acquiesce to a new era of lawlessness, impunity and rampant injustice. Now is not the time to appease. Now is the time to resist."

"Appeasement will only further embolden perpetrators and open the door to more armed conflicts and more crimes committed by powerful leaders against their own or other states' populations. Amnesty International calls on all states to firmly resist – both collectively and unilaterally – the Trump administration's campaign against the ICC and all international institutions that protect human rights. They must also reiterate their support for the Court and enact practical and legislative measures, including so-called 'blocking statutes', to mitigate the effect of US sanctions on those impacted.

"State inaction and cowardice in the face of past sanctions and attacks is what emboldened the US to announce this strategy. For the good of humanity, victims' hopes of justice, and the prospect of lasting global security, the international community must come together, stand up to the bullies in the White House and State Department and protect the international rule of law. We must not accept a reality where the most powerful have the least legal responsibility."

UK response

Amnesty International UK has written to the Prime Minister urging the Government to take concrete action to defend the International Criminal Court, following the US Secretary of State's announcement that Washington will seek to systematically disable the Court's ability to operate.

Kerry Moscogiuri, Amnesty International UK's Chief Executive, said:

"The US is not just criticising the International Criminal Court – it is trying to dismantle it. This is a naked attempt to shield the powerful from justice, and it should alarm every government that has signed up to the Rome Statute.

"The UK must not sit on the fence while a treaty-based international court is bullied out of existence through sanctions and intimidation. As a State Party, Britain has both the standing and the obligation to act – publicly reaffirming support for the Court, making clear that US sanctions will not be enforced here, and working with allies to keep the ICC's essential banking, insurance and IT services running."