The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, on Friday vehemently called on the United States to revoke the sanctions it recently imposed on four International Criminal Court (ICC) judges, asserting that these measures undermine the rule of law.
In a strong statement, Turk declared himself “profoundly disturbed by the decision of the Government of the United States of America to sanction judges of the International Criminal Court.”
He urged for the “prompt reconsideration and withdrawal of these latest measures,” emphasising that “attacks against judges for performance of their judicial functions, at national or international levels, run directly counter to respect for the rule of law and the equal protection of the law — values for which the US has long stood.”
Turk further warned that such actions are “deeply corrosive of good governance and the due administration of justice.”
The US had imposed these sanctions on Thursday. Among the targeted judges, Beti Hohler of Slovenia and Reine Alapini-Gansou of Benin were involved in the proceedings that led to the arrest warrant issued last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The other two judges, Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza of Peru and Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, participated in court proceedings that authorised an investigation into allegations of war crimes committed by US forces during the war in Afghanistan.
