THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court could jeopardize trials and investigations at the world’s only permanent global tribunal for war crimes and genocide.
The order Trump signed Thursday accuses the ICC of “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.” It cites the arrest warrant the ICC issued last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
The Hague-based court condemned the move. “The Court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world,” the court said in a statement.
What is the International Criminal Court?
The court was created in 2002 to be a last stop for the most serious international crimes: war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and aggression.
The United States and Israel are not members, but 125 other countries have signed the court’s foundational treaty, the Rome Statute. The ICC becomes involved when nations are unable or unwilling to prosecute crimes on their territory.
The court’s newest member, Ukraine, formally joined in January.
Judges at the court have convicted 11 people. Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga was the first, sentenced in 2012 to 14 years in prison for conscripting child soldiers.
A Congolese warlord known as “The Terminator” was convicted in July 2019 for atrocities committed during a brutal ethnic conflict in a mineral-rich region of Congo in 2002-2003. Bosco Ntaganda was given a 30-year prison sentence.
In 2021, the court convicted Dominic Ongwen of dozens of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including multiple killings and forced marriages in Uganda. Ongwen was a one-time child soldier who morphed into a brutal commander of a notorious rebel group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army.
What will these sanctions do?
The exact impact is unclear. Trump’s executive order invokes emergency powers from several different laws to allow the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. State Department to issue specific sanctions.
The court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, is a likely target, as is anyone involved in the Netanyahu investigation, including the three judges who issued the arrest warrants. The sanctions could also target the court itself, grinding its operations to a halt.
During his previous term in office, Trump imposed sanctions on former prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her deputies over her investigation of alleged crimes in Afghanistan. The probe covered offenses allegedly committed by the Taliban, American troops and U.S. foreign intelligence operatives dating back to 2002. Trump’s sanctions blocked Bensouda from accessing any U.S.-based financial assets of court employees and barred her and her immediate family from entering the United States.
President Joe Biden lifted the sanctions when he took office in 2021.
Why has the court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu?
