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The International Criminal Court (ICC) has condemned sanctions imposed by the United States, describing the measures as a threat to international law and warning that “history will judge this moment”.
In a statement on Friday, the Hague-based tribunal said the sanctions undermined the rule of law and challenged the principle that everyone should be subject to the same legal standards, regardless of position or status.
The sanctions are “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”, said the court in a statement.
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The court said the measures appeared intended to intimidate its staff and disrupt its operations, but maintained that it would continue to carry out its responsibilities without interference.
The condemnation followed an announcement by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Washington would prohibit transactions involving the ICC. The decision marks a further escalation in President Donald Trump’s administration’s longstanding opposition to the tribunal.
ICC President Tomoko Akane said the court would continue investigating and prosecuting serious crimes independently and impartially, relying on applicable law and available evidence to serve victims of grave offences.
“The Court will continue to fully discharge its mandate, with independence and impartiality, acting only on the basis of the law and the evidence, for the sake of the countless victims of grave crimes,” Akane said in the statement.
She also urged the court’s 125 member states to defend the institution, stressing that its future depended partly on the governments that established it.
The ICC warned that future generations, particularly survivors and victims of mass atrocities, would judge how the international community responded to the sanctions against a court created to protect them.
“Its fate now rests also in the hands of the states that created it.”
“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,” the court said.
