U.S. Sanctions the International Criminal Court Itself, Hours After Ex-Judge Wins Nobel

The Trump administration imposed fresh sanctions on the International Criminal Court on Friday, targeting the court itself after previously penalizing more than a dozen of its judges and prosecutors.

"Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement announcing the measures. He vowed to dismantle the court "brick by brick" if necessary, repeating language he has used before. Rubio has described the ICC as a "fatally politicized supranational court" that has "maliciously abused its authority."

The announcement came just hours after the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Navanethem "Navi" Pillay, a South African-born human rights official who served as an ICC judge from 2003 to 2008. Pillay also led a U.N. inquiry that determined last year that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, a finding Israel strongly disputes.

Under the designation, the court's assets under U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. companies and individuals are generally barred from doing business with it. For now, the Treasury Department is allowing some services to continue and has given the court 180 days to maintain certain operations while its member countries address Washington's objections. "We have structured this action to provide an opportunity for States Parties to negotiate and present a solution to address our concerns," Rubio said. "If these efforts do not bear fruit, we will continue to adjust accordingly."

The court pushed back. It condemned the designation as an attempt to interfere with its work and intimidate those who cooperate with it, calling it "an assault on the rule of law." ICC President Tomoko Akane said the court "will continue to fully discharge its mandate, with independence and impartiality." The court also appealed to its 125 member states to help ensure it has the resources to keep operating, warning that its future now depends in part on the governments that created it.

The foreign ministers of Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom said in a joint statement that they "regret and strongly disagree with the announcement of sanctions to be imposed upon the Court by the United States." They warned that, if put into effect, the sanctions "will have a significant impact on the Court's work, its dedicated staff and their families."

Neither the United States nor Israel is a party to the Rome Statute that established the ICC. Washington has long objected to the court's investigation of alleged war crimes by U.S. personnel in Afghanistan and to its arrest warrants for Israeli leaders over alleged crimes in Gaza. The court maintains it can prosecute crimes committed on territory under its jurisdiction, even when the accused is a national of a country that has not joined. Its member states include most U.S. allies in Europe, every NATO member besides Turkey, and Canada, Japan and Australia.

Pillay left the court in 2008 to become the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and now serves on the International Court of Justice, which is a separate body. In a video after winning the prize, she referred to the U.S. campaign against the ICC. "We are living through an era when international law and human rights are under significant political attack," she said. "This worsening reality is particularly visible with the attacks on the International Criminal Court."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the prize showed the Nobel Committee "has lost its moral compass." The sanctions also follow a speech Rubio gave Wednesday in Athens, in which he criticized Western governments for transferring national authority to international bureaucracies.