Rubio Vows to Dismantle the International Criminal Court 'Brick by Brick' in Sweeping U.S. Campaign

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday unveiled a sweeping campaign to cripple the International Criminal Court, declaring that the United States would tear the institution down "brick by brick" and describing a coordinated government effort to strip the court of its ability to function. The announcement represents one of the most aggressive moves yet by Washington against the Hague-based tribunal.

In a statement, the State Department said it was mounting a "whole-of-government response to systematically disable the ICC's ability to operate, target American servicemen or officials, or otherwise threaten American sovereignty." Rubio accused the court of seeking to become "the unaccountable arbiter of a new global law," empowered, in his words, to prosecute and arrest American citizens at will. The department framed the campaign as a defense of U.S. sovereignty against what it called a "radical and extreme" body.

The effort builds on earlier U.S. sanctions targeting ICC prosecutor Karim Khan and several of the court's judges — measures that froze assets, restricted financial transactions and imposed travel bans. The administration has since expanded the penalties to include Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, along with three Palestinian human-rights organizations accused of supporting the court's investigations. Rubio also urged allied nations to join the campaign to isolate the tribunal.

The United States has never been a member of the ICC, having declined to ratify the Rome Statute that established the court in 2002, and successive administrations of both parties have guarded against the prospect of American personnel facing prosecution abroad. But the scope and stridency of the new campaign go well beyond past friction, moving from resistance to an explicit pledge to dismantle the institution.

The reaction from Europe was sharp and immediate. The European Union called threats against the ICC "unacceptable," and several member states reaffirmed their support for the court, which counts more than 120 countries as members and serves as the world's only permanent tribunal for prosecuting genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Human-rights advocates warned that a U.S. drive to hobble the court could embolden accused war criminals and weaken a pillar of the postwar international legal order.

Court officials have previously said that sanctions and intimidation would not deter their work, insisting that the tribunal's mandate rests on the treaty obligations of its members rather than the approval of any single government. Whether Washington's pressure campaign succeeds in choking the court's operations — its financing, its staff, its ability to travel and investigate — may now become one of the defining tests of international law in the years ahead.