07 February 2025 , 07:32
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US president has been critical of court since it issued arrest warrant for Netanyahu over alleged war crimes in Gaza
Donald Trump has signed an executive order that authorises aggressive economic sanctions against the international criminal court (ICC), accusing the body of “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting the US and Israel.
The order grants the US president broad powers to impose asset freezes and travel bans against ICC staff and their family members if the US determines that they are involved in efforts to investigate or prosecute citizens of the US and certain allies.
The hostile action against the ICC comes in response to the court’s decision in November to issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
In the order, Trump said the ICC had “abused its power” by issuing the warrants which he claimed had “set a dangerous precedent” that endangered US citizens and its military personnel.
“This malign conduct in turn threatens to infringe upon the sovereignty of the United States and undermines the critical national security and foreign policy work of the United States government and our allies, including Israel,” he added.
Neither the US nor Israel are member states of the ICC, a permanent court of last resort for the prosecution of individuals accused of atrocities. In his order, Trump argued the court must “respect the decision” of countries “not to subject their personnel to the ICC’s jurisdiction”.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, strongly applauded Trump’s move, posting: “Thank you, President Trump, for your bold ICC executive order. It will defend America and Israel from the anti-American and antisemetic corrupt court that has no jurisdiction or basis to engage in lawfare against us.”
Trump said the US “will impose tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC’s transgressions” including by blocking property and assets and suspending entry into the US of ICC officials and their family members.
It was unclear if the Trump administration would announce the names of specific individuals targeted by the sanctions. ICC officials have prepared for sanctions to impact senior figures at the court including its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.
On Thursday, ICC officials were working late into the night awaiting news from Washington about the scope of the sanctions and which of its officials would be individually targeted.
The signing of the order comes days after Trump met with the Israeli prime minister in the Oval Office. Netanyahu was still in Washington on Thursday, when he spent some of the day meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Last week, a bill that would have imposed sweeping sanctions against the ICC was stalled in the Senate after Democrats refused to support the legislation.
Responding to Trump’s move, the secretary general of Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard, said the order “sends the message that Israel is above the law and the universal principles of international justice”.
“Today’s executive order is vindictive. It is aggressive. It is a brutal step that seeks to undermine and destroy what the international community has painstakingly constructed over decades, if not centuries: global rules that are applicable to everyone and aim to deliver justice for all,” she added.
Other activists said sanctioning court officials would have a chilling effect and run counter to US interests in other conflict zones where the court is investigating.
“Victims of human rights abuses around the world turn to the international criminal court when they have nowhere else to go, and President Trump’s executive order will make it harder for them to find justice,” said Charlie Hogle, staff attorney with American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project.
“The order also raises serious First Amendment concerns because it puts people in the United States at risk of harsh penalties for helping the court identify and investigate atrocities committed anywhere, by anyone.”
After ICC judges issued the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant in November, the court had been bracing itself for retaliatory moves by the Trump administration.
Officials at the court, which is headquartered in the Hague in the Netherlands, fear the sanctions could pose an existential threat to the judicial body, which was established in 2002 and has 125 member states which have ratified its founding statute.
Several ICC sources told the Guardian last month that sanctions against senior court figures would be difficult but manageable, but institution-wide sanctions would pose an existential threat to the judicial body as they would block its access to services it depends on to function.
The order signed by Trump on Thursday suggests the US will target specific individuals listed in an annex to document, however it was not immediately clear which individuals were included.
In 2020, under a separate but similar executive order, Trump imposed travel bans and asset freezes against the ICC’s former prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, who is Gambian, and one of her top officials.
The measures were launched in response to decisions made by Bensouda in war crimes investigations in Afghanistan and the occupied Palestinian territories. At the time, Bensouda was conducting a preliminary inquiry into allegations of crimes committed by Israel’s armed forces and Hamas.
In 2021, Bensouda upgraded the case to a formal criminal investigation. The current prosecutor, Karim Khan, inherited the inquiry and later accelerated it after the Hamas-led 7 October attacks and Israel’s ensuing bombardment of Gaza.