The International Criminal Court, in The Hague (Netherlands), March 12, 2025. OMAR HAVANA / AP
This is not yet the chronicle of a death foretold. But the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) report on "the US lawfare against the international justice system," released Thursday, April 23, has the precision of an autopsy. This coalition, which brings together NGOs from 150 countries, dissected the US sanctions gradually imposed over the past 15 months against the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Since an executive order signed by Donald Trump on February 6, 2025, these sanctions have targeted three prosecutors, eight judges, a United Nations expert and three Palestinian human rights organizations, all singled out for their involvement in cases related to past crimes by the US military in Afghanistan and those committed by Israel in the Palestinian territories. With this 68-page report, the CICC provides a stark overview of the damage Washington has inflicted on a justice system tasked with fighting impunity for perpetrators of crimes against humanity.
In addition to being denied US visas, the 11 sanctioned magistrates and Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, have lost access to their email, American travel platforms, video services, booking systems, payment systems, e-books, cloud services and more. Most critically, they have had their bank cards deactivated, can no longer transfer money outside Europe and in some cases have lost access to their bank accounts entirely.
