A Petition with 13,000 signatures thus far asks Biden to End Trump’s Coercive Measures Against the International Criminal Court
(November 29, 2020) — A petition started by World BEYOND War and RootsAction.org urges President-Elect Joe Biden to reverse President Donald Trump’s actions toward the International Criminal Court.
With the ICC investigating the actions of all parties to the war in Afghanistan and potentially investigating Israel’s actions in Palestine, in June 2020 U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order authorizing the punishment of any individuals involved in or in any way assisting such court proceedings.
The U.S. State Department has restricted visas for ICC officials and in September 2020 sanctioned two court officials, including the Chief Prosecutor, freezing their U.S. assets and blocking them from financial transactions with U.S. persons, banks, and companies.
Trump’s actions have been condemned by over 70 national governments, including the United States’ closest allies, by Human Rights Watch, and by the International Association of Democratic Lawyers.
The petition reads:
To: U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden
We strongly urge you to swiftly repudiate the lawlessness of your predecessor and reverse Trump’s executive order allowing the punishment of those working for or in any way benefitting the work of the International Criminal Court.
PETITION: Ask Biden to End Trump’s Coercive Measures Against the International Criminal Court
World BEYOND War / Action Network Petition
To: US President-Elect Joe Biden
With the International Criminal Court investigating the actions of all parties to the war in Afghanistan and potentially investigating Israel’s actions in Palestine, in June 2020 US President Donald Trump issued an executive order authorizing the punishment of any individuals involved in or in any way assisting such court proceedings. The US State Department has restricted visas for ICC officials and in September 2020 sanctioned two court officials, including the Chief Prosecutor, freezing their US assets and blocking them from financial transactions with US persons, banks, and companies.
Trump’s action has been condemned by over 70 national governments, including the United States’ closest allies, and by International Association of Democratic Lawyers.
ACTION: Ask Biden to End These Coercive Measures — Click Here.
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US Sanctions International Criminal Court Prosecutor
Trump Administration’s Action Tries to Block Justice for World’s Worst Crimes
Illustration of the scales of justice replaced by two people shackled by their wrists and dangling in the air. © 2015 Brian Stauffer for Human Rights Watch
WASHINGTON, DC (September 12, 2020) — (The Trump administration’s unprecedented imposition of asset freezes on prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) shows an egregious disregard for victims of the world’s worst crimes, Human Rights Watch said today.
On September 2, 2020, the administration announced that the United States had designated the ICC prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and the head of the Office of the Prosecutor’s Jurisdiction, Complementarity, and Cooperation Division, Phakiso Mochochoko, for sanctions.
The US action gives effect to a sweeping executive order issued on June 11 by President Donald Trump, which declared a dubious national emergency and authorized asset freezes and family entry bans that could be imposed against certain ICC officials.
The Trump administration had repeatedly threatened action to thwart ICC investigations in Afghanistan and Palestine into conduct by US and Israeli nationals, and revoked the ICC prosecutor’s US visa in 2019.
“The Trump administration’s perverse use of sanctions, devised for alleged terrorists and drug kingpins, against prosecutors seeking justice for grave international crimes, magnifies the failure of the US to prosecute torture,” said Richard Dicker, international justice director at Human Rights Watch. “The administration’s conjuring up a ‘national emergency’ to punish war crimes prosecutors shows utter disregard for the victims.”
The ICC is the permanent international court created to try people accused of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression. Following the atrocities in Rwanda and in the former Yugoslavia in the mid-1990s, concerned governments set up the ICC to bring those responsible for serious international crimes, including senior officials, to justice. Currently, 123 countries have joined the court, nearly two-thirds the membership of the United Nations. The court has opened investigations into alleged atrocities in 12 countries, including Sudan, Myanmar, and Afghanistan.
In response to Trump’s executive order in June, 67 ICC member countries, including key US allies, issued a joint cross-regional statement expressing “unwavering support for the court as an independent and impartial judicial institution.” This was accompanied by statements from the European Union, the president of the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties, and nongovernmental organizations in the US and globally. ICC member countries have repeatedly affirmed their support for the court.
These sanctions seriously affect those targeted, who not only lose access to their assets in the US but are also cut off from commercial and financial dealings with “US persons,” including banks and other companies. US sanctions also have a chilling effect on non-US banks and other companies outside of US jurisdiction who fear losing access themselves to the US banking system if they do not help the US to effectively export the sanctions measures.
The June executive order is designed not only to intimidate court officials and staff involved in critical investigations of the court but also to chill broader cooperation with the ICC, Human Rights Watch said. The order authorizes sanctions against non-US persons who assist in investigations to which the US administration objects.
The US, which is not a member state of the court’s foundational Rome Statute, objects to ICC authority over nationals of non-member countries unless a UN Security Council resolution authorizes it. Afghanistan, however, is an ICC member country, which gives the court authority to investigate and prosecute crimes committed by anyone – regardless of nationality – on Afghan territory or otherwise connected to the conflict.
Significantly, the ICC is a court of last resort, stepping in only if national authorities do not conduct genuine domestic proceedings. The Afghan government has asked the ICC prosecutor to defer her investigation, asserting that Afghan authorities can conduct credible national proceedings, although the Afghan government has not demonstrated the capacity and willingness to do so. Senior-level US civilian and military officials who could bear responsibility for authorizing the well-documented torture and other ill-treatment of detainees in connection with the conflict in Afghanistan, or for failing to punish those who carried out abuses, have not been held to account before US courts.
Because the ICC prosecutor’s office is assessing Afghanistan’s request and because of restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, the court is not currently conducting active investigative steps in the country.
“ICC members have banded together before to stand with victims and defend the court’s mandate from unprincipled attacks, including from the US,” Dicker said. “These governments should stand ready to do all it takes to ensure the ICC remains on course so that no one, even from the most powerful countries, is above the law.”
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