Rights Groups, Advocates and Atrocity Survivors Urge Continued Opposition to ICC Sanctions

Updated March 19, 2025: On February 6, 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order authorizing sanctions against the ICC. So far, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, is the only person to be sanctioned under the program. Read our explainer on the sanctions against the ICC here.

This afternoon, a cloture vote in the Senate on a bill which would impose U.S. sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), failed to garner the 60 votes needed to proceed to consideration of the bill, H.R. 8282, the so-called “Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act.” This means the congressionally-mandated sanctions against the ICC won’t happen for now. But the White House is able to impose sanctions on its own, and there may be further attempts to pass H.R. 8282 or similar legislation in Congress.

Advocates from several ICC situation countries, as well as U.S.-based advocates, joined earlier in the day to highlight the vital role of the ICC in investigating the worst international crimes that shock the collective conscience. A video of the 30-minute briefing is online here.

“The International Criminal Court is the only international mechanism which provides us a chance to make Putin and his allies accountable,” said Oleksandra Matviichuk, Head of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient in 2022. “Russian troops have committed horrible crimes in Chechnya, Moldova, Georgia, Mali, Libya, Syria, and other countries of the world. Putin believes he can do whatever he wants. The ICC is the existing instrument for how we can break this circle of impunity, and it’s important not just for people in Ukraine, because if we’re not able to stop Putin, he will go further.”

“The Filipino people calls on its friends, the American people, to allow us to continue with our quest for justice for the atrocities that our people suffered under Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s murderous regime,” said Dino S. de Leon, Philippine human rights lawyer, spokesperson of former Senator Leila de Lima, and Director at Human Rights and People Empowerment Center. “In the name of the grieving victims of the violent Philippine drug war, we urge members of the US Congress to withdraw their support to the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act.”

“For the millions of people of Burma, the Rohingya community, and all the ethnic minorities, there is only one hope we have:  That the International Criminal Court will one day punish those perpetrators. The US has been our main ally and supporter in this struggle,” said Kyaw Win, Executive Director, Burma Human Rights Network. “Sanctioning the ICC could smash our dreams, and take away our right to have justice. It would signal to all the perpetrators in the world that they can kill as much as they like.”

“Sanctions imposed on the ICC are a dangerous precedent that sends the message that such crimes are not serious and perpetrators will continue to get away with impunity,” said Niemat Ahmadi, President of Darfur Women Action Group and survivor of the Darfur Genocide. “If the ICC is being hindered, it will enable perpetrators from around the world, including those who the US is seeking to hold accountable, to go free.”

“The U.S. government’s sanctions are a powerful tool, and this is a fundamentally wrong way to use them,” said Adam Keith, senior director of accountability at Human Rights First. “Sanctioning the ICC will harm the important work of these advocates seeking justice, it will warm the hearts of autocrats around the world, and it will damage U.S. ties with some of this country’s most important allies.”

“A founding principle of the ICC is that no one is above the law, and that the international community will ensure that victims have their day in court and can seek justice, including against heads of state such as Vladimir Putin or leaders of the Taliban”, said Amanda Klasing, National Government Relations Director, Amnesty International USA. “The U.S. Congress should not act to impose severe individual or institutional sanctions on an institution committed to ensuring international justice, international human rights, and the international rules-based system–doing so would be a shocking betrayal to victims and to the global system of justice of which the U.S. was a chief architect at the Nuremberg trials and beyond.”

”US sanctions against ICC judges and prosecutors would be a gift to those around the globe responsible for mass atrocities,” said Liz Evenson, International Justice Director, Human Rights Watch. “Sanctions are for human rights violators, not those working to hold rights abusers to account.”

“Victims and survivors of the gravest crimes that shock the conscience of humanity rely on the ICC as their only hope,” said Rebecca A. Shoot, Executive Director, Citizens for Global Solutions, Convener, Washington Working Group for the ICC. “We should not turn our backs on their calls for justice, we must not imperil the work of this court of last resort, and we cannot forget the promise of ‘never again’ that it was meant to realize.”

“The resourceful US government has tools for pursuing its international objectives without throwing human rights under the bus,” noted David Borden, Executive Director of StoptheDrugWar.org, who has organized a series of events about the Philippine drug war at UN and other international meetings. “Witnesses to atrocity crimes, victims hoping desperately for accountability, and democracies worldwide, are all be placed at risk by this overly broad, misguided piece of legislation.”

NOTES:

In a letter to Congress and the Trump Administration, more than 130 faith-based groups, legal associations, and academic institutions urged opposition to any efforts to undermine the ICC.

A letter to Congress signed by prominent Filipinos who support the Philippines ICC investigation, its lead signatory Leila de Lima, warned of the continuing danger to witnesses and the need to protect them.

130 NGOs from around the world urged ICC member states to take steps to protect the court if sanctions are implemented, in order to ensure victims’ access to justice.

The ambassadors from 20 European governments expressed “concerns regarding [the] possible sanctions… [warning it] would severely undermine all seventeen situations under investigation, some of which are already at an advanced stage, thanks to US support…”