The United States has imposed sanctions on the president of the International Criminal Court and its chief prosecutor, the State Department announced this week, marking the latest escalation in a sustained campaign by Washington against the tribunal. The sanctions freeze any US-based assets held by the two officials and bar American citizens and companies from doing business with them, according to reporting from the BBC.
The designations were issued under an executive order that the Trump administration first used against ICC personnel in 2025, after the court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza. Washington, which is not a member of the ICC, has repeatedly argued that the court has no jurisdiction over Israel or the United States and has accused it of overstepping its authority.
A Widening Campaign Against The Court
The latest sanctions add to a growing list of ICC personnel targeted by the US. In February 2025, the administration sanctioned then-chief prosecutor Karim Khan directly over his pursuit of the Netanyahu warrant. By June 2025, the sanctions had expanded to include four ICC judges who had approved arrest warrants or authorized investigations touching on Israeli and American nationals, including judges involved in the court’s long-running inquiry into alleged war crimes by US forces in Afghanistan.
Officials at the State Department have framed the sanctions as a defense of American sovereignty, arguing that the ICC has no legal standing to investigate a country that never ratified the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the court in 2002. The US, along with Israel, Russia and China, is not a party to the statute, though the court maintains it can exercise jurisdiction over crimes committed on the territory of member states, including the Palestinian territories.
ICC Response
The court has strongly condemned the sanctions, calling them an attack on judicial independence and the broader system of international justice. In previous statements responding to sanctions against its staff, ICC leadership has said such measures are intended to intimidate judges and prosecutors and to deter victims and witnesses from cooperating with ongoing investigations.
Attacks on the court’s officials undermine decades of international efforts to hold perpetrators of atrocity crimes accountable, regardless of their nationality or position, the court has said in response to earlier rounds of sanctions.
Human rights organizations have echoed that criticism, warning that sanctioning judges and prosecutors sets a precedent that could be used by other powerful states to shield their own nationals from scrutiny. European allies of the US, many of whom are ICC member states and have historically supported the court’s mandate, have also expressed concern, though most governments have stopped short of directly confronting Washington over the issue.
Impact On The Court’s Operations
The sanctions have created practical complications for the ICC’s day-to-day work. Because the court relies on international banking systems that are heavily exposed to US financial regulations, sanctioned officials have reportedly faced difficulty accessing basic banking services, even for personal transactions unrelated to their court duties. Some ICC staff have also raised concerns that broader sanctions could chill cooperation from witnesses, informants and partner governments wary of falling afoul of US restrictions themselves.
Despite the pressure, the court has continued to pursue its investigation into the Gaza conflict as well as separate inquiries into alleged crimes in Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere. The ICC previously issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2023 over the forced deportation of Ukrainian children, a case that has drawn broad support from Kyiv and its Western allies even as the court faces sanctions pressure from Washington on other fronts.
What Comes Next
It remains unclear whether the newly sanctioned president and prosecutor will face additional restrictions, such as travel bans, or whether other ICC officials could be added to the list in the coming months. The State Department has signaled that further action remains possible if the court continues investigations that Washington views as targeting American or allied personnel.
For now, the ICC has said it will continue operating under its founding mandate, with its judges and prosecutors carrying out their duties despite the financial and diplomatic pressure. The broader standoff underscores a deepening rift between the United States and an institution that much of the international community has relied on for more than two decades to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity when national courts are unable or unwilling to act.
The dispute also arrives amid renewed global attention on accountability for wartime atrocities more broadly, including ongoing scrutiny of attacks affecting civilians in conflict zones such as the case of Ukrainian children targeted in Poland, which Polish authorities are separately investigating.
