US rights groups sue Trump administration over ICC sanctions

Four US-based rights groups sued the Trump administration on Tuesday for its sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In a statement, the American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch, and the Open Society Institute called the sanctions "blatantly illegal".

They said they are being forced "to curtail a wide range of human rights and legal work in violation of... First and Fifth Amendment rights under the US Constitution and under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act", given that anyone who appears to associate with ICC cases or officials could now face legal repercussions.

Just days after he assumed power in late January 2025, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to sanction the ICC over its investigations into top Israeli officials.

British barrister Karim Khan, who was the ICC's chief prosecutor, was the only person named as a sanctioned individual.

He has since been removed through a member states' vote, albeit due to sexual assault allegations. Khan has denied them.

The executive order followed a White House visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the ICC over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza since October 2023.

Netanyahu and his then defence minister, Yoav Gallant, were issued arrest warrants in November 2024, alongside three Hamas leaders, who have since been killed by Israel.

All non-US individuals and their family members who assist in ICC investigations of US citizens or allies fall under the sanctions order. Their assets are frozen, they cannot use the international banking system, and they cannot enter the US.

This is not the first lawsuit in response to US sanctions.

In July, advocates for Palestinian rights in the US filed a lawsuit in a New York City federal court, seeking an injunction to stop the Trump administration's enforcement of sanctions against groups or individuals liaising with the ICC.

Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), founded by the late Middle East Eye columnist Jamal Khashoggi, as well as the Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide (Taag), said they felt compelled to immediately go to court after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in an opinion piece that the US was willing to dismantle the ICC "brick by brick".

'No basis in fact'

The lawsuit insists that Trump's powers to sanction the ICC "are based on a pseudo national emergency that has no basis in fact", the groups said on Tuesday.

"The sanctions have stopped the four plaintiff organizations from continuing or undertaking activities like representing victims of war crimes as legal counsel, making legal and policy submissions to the ICC, and collaborating with the sanctioned Palestinian human rights groups to undertake litigation, coordinate advocacy campaigns, research human rights violations, or provide humanitarian aid," the statement said.

Last year the Trump administration also sanctioned several Palestinian human rights organisations, many of which receive legal and financial support from US experts and donors.

It also sanctioned officials in the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) over their work taking Israel to international courts.

According to the State Department, the unnamed officials were “undermining the prospects for peace”.

In his executive order, Trump said the ICC has "engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel".

The US and Israel are not state parties to the Rome Statute, which is the treaty that established the ICC in The Hague in 2002.

Both states have opposed the court’s investigation into alleged Israeli crimes in Palestine, launched by the ICC’s previous prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, in 2021.

The court’s jurisdiction was based on the accession of the State of Palestine to the Rome Statute in 2015. That means the court can investigate Israeli individuals for crimes committed in occupied Palestine, which includes the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

But Israel and the US have challenged the court’s jurisdiction, saying they do not recognise Palestine as a state, and that Israel is best placed to investigate itself under the principle of complementarity as set out in Article 17 of the Rome Statute.

Trump’s order reiterated this view and described the arrest warrants as an abuse of power.

Dismantling the ICC

Last month, Rubio said the Trump administration is working to "dismantle the [International Criminal Court] brick by brick".

“The ICC’s interfering with American military and law enforcement operations isn’t just only a grave overreach of its purported authorities. It would mean the death of the US as a sovereign and independent nation,” Rubio wrote in an opinion article published by The Wall Street Journal.

He said that Americans likely don't know the names of the judges, prosecutors or presidents of the international court, and that they "shouldn't have to", while accusing the ICC of waging a war against the US.

Rubio’s criticism noted "bipartisan" opposition to the court, which was founded in 2002 in response to genocides and atrocities in war zones such as Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

Rubio made no direct mention of the outstanding arrest warrant issued for Netanyahu and Gallant in his article.

The European Union warned earlier this year that Trump's order has the potential to seriously affect the ICC's work in all investigations, not just on Palestine.

The court is currently investigating alleged crimes in 16 situations, including Darfur, Ukraine, Venezuela, Afghanistan, and Myanmar.

But also last month, the new Venezuelan government - effectively run by Rubio himself from afar - withdrew from the ICC.

In a post on X, the US State Department hailed the move as marking a "partnership on American-led efforts to dismantle the corrupt and worthless ICC".

It pointed to an investigation by the court into former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, who was abducted from the South American country during a US military assault in January 2026, saying it had produced "no result".

"The ICC has instead wasted its resources on investigating and charging persons from countries that have competent, independent judicial systems and which never submitted to the jurisdiction of the court," the statement read.

"This is blatant overreach, political bias and selective enforcement," it said, adding that the court is "neither credible, independent, nor legitimate".