The US government is leading a bid to “dismantle” the International Criminal Court. The startling declaration came from Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday — with reports suggesting that officials were pressurising countries to diplomatically isolate the court. The Donald Trump administration has also backed sanctions against ICC judges in the past and dubbed it an “intolerable threat” to sovereignty.
“If we stand idle, all of them will be at the mercy of foreign judges, thousands of miles away – facing the constant risk of prosecution and even imprisonment for the so-called ‘crime’ of defending their own country,” Rubio insisted via social media.
He also penned a lengthy opinion article for The Wall Street Journal on Monday — painting a grim picture of US border patrol agents and elected leaders being “dragged before an international court” for arbitration by foreign judges. It is pertinent to note here that the United States is not a member of the ICC and no American is currently facing a case linked to the global tribunal .
‘Dismantle the ICC brick by brick’
Rubio wrote in an X post that the International Criminal Court sought to become an “unaccountable arbiter of a new global law” that was “empowered to prosecute and arrest our citizens at will”. The ICC was established in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, genocide, and other crimes against humanity that went unpunished by a State.
“Using all the tools at our government’s disposal, working beside every ally with whom we can make common cause, we will dismantle the ICC — brick by brick,” Rubio vowed in an op-ed published by The Wall Street Journal.
The article began by describing a dystopian (and somewhat unrealistic) world where US officials could be “dragged before an international court and tried by judges from random countries across the globe”. Rubio added that such individuals could be found guilty “under international laws we neither consent to nor control and then imprisoned thousands of miles from America”. The International Criminal Court, he insisted, now claimed the power to do this.
ICC prosecutors had opened an Afghanistan probe in March 2020 that included looking into possible crimes by U.S. troops. But it has deprioritised the role of America and focused on alleged crimes committed by the Afghan government and Taliban forces in the ensuing years. Trump had also signed an executive order authorising sweeping financial sanctions, asset freezes, and US entry bans against ICC officials as it investigated both Israeli leaders and Hamas for alleged war crimes.
“As we speak, the ICC and its friends are waging a war against our country, not with bullets and missiles, but with statutes, compacts, and the force of so-called international law,” Rubio added.
How does Trump plan to ‘dismantle’ the ICC?
A State Department official told Reuters that a wide range of options were under consideration to target the ICC and “diplomatically isolate” it. This including travel bans, visa revocations, increased sanctions against the ICC and affiliated organizations as well as diplomatic pressure on other nations to withdraw from the ICC. The unnamed source added that nations that refused to reject ICC authority while relying on American assistance were “likely to come under increased scrutiny”.
“No diplomatic option will be off-limits in the campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the ICC to Americans…We will watch with interest which nations join ranks with us against this threat to Americans who are willing to risk their lives to protect others,” Reuters quoted State Department officials as saying.
