Trump blasted for targeting top ICC officials probing US war crimes
Human rights advocates the world over have condemned the Trump administration for slapping sanctions on two top officials at the International Criminal Court—the latest act of retaliation for the Hague-based ICC’s ongoing investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by American forces and others in Afghanistan during the so-called War on Terror.
“The Trump administration has consistently waged a campaign against international justice and the independence of the judiciary.”
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
Washington brands ICC ‘illegitimate‘
“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.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been the lead adversary of the ICC probe, which moved forward in March after a series of delays.
Pompeo announced the government’s sanctions targeting Fatou Bensouda, court’s chief prosecutor, and Phakiso Mochochoko, the ICC’s prosecution jurisdiction division director this week.
“The United States has never ratified the Rome Statute that created the court, and we will not tolerate its illegitimate attempts to subject Americans to its jurisdiction.”
‘Full frontal attack on the rule of law’
Pompeo described the court as “a thoroughly broken and corrupted institution,” and said the administration is imposing the sanctions “because the ICC continues to target Americans, sadly.”
Officials in The Hague decided in March to open an investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan between 2003 and 2014.
The ICC investigation—which has provoked various threats and actions from the administration—includes crimes allegedly committed by members of the US armed forces, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Taliban, affiliated armed groups, and Afghan government forces both within Afghanistan and at CIA black sites in Poland, Lithuania, and Romania.
The probe has been welcomed by human rights activists and advocacy groups such as the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which denounced the sanctions as “an unprecedented targeting of an international prosecutor seeking to enforce international law and universally-recognized prohibitions on the commission of war crimes and torture.”
The Trump administration opposes the ICC’s investigation of not only Afghanistan but also alleged crimes committed by Israeli forces against Palestinians.
CCR, which represents victims in both cases, said in a statement this week that the Trump administration’s latest retaliatory move against Bensouda and Mochochoko “is a full frontal attack on the rule of law.”
“Throughout its tenure, the Trump administration has consistently waged a campaign against international justice and the independence of the judiciary,” the group added, taking aim at President Donald Trump’s June executive order that established the framework for sanctions as well as Pompeo’s remarks to reporters.
Diluting international justice
The ICC said Trump’s order is another “attempt to interfere with the Court’s judicial and prosecutorial independence” and crucial work to address grave crimes of concern to the international community as mandated under the ICC Rome Statute.
The CCR warned “the vague and broad scope of the executive order, which invokes the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the civil and criminal penalties thereunder, and Pompeo’s use of ‘material support’ language, which invokes the US government’s sweeping and overbroad deployment of that concept in the ‘terrorism’ context, is intended to chill judicial proceedings and international justice.”
Daniel Balson, advocacy director at Amnesty International USA, issued a similar warning, blasting the administration’s “reckless” decision as “another brazen attack against international justice” that “is designed to do what this administration does best—bully and intimidate.”
“Grotesquely, the White House’s actions may dissuade survivors of human rights abuses from demanding justice, and create a chilling effect on those who would support their efforts.”
Daniel Balson, Amnesty International USA
“It penalizes not only the ICC, but civil society actors working for justice alongside the court worldwide,” Balson said.
“No one responsible for the most serious crimes under international law should be able to hide from accountability, under a cloak of impunity,” he added, calling on federal lawmakers to “stand up for international justice and object to this transparent abuse of the executive’s congressionally mandated sanctions power.”
Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU’s Human Rights Program, called the sanctions a “very troubling development” clearly designed to obstruct the ICC probe. Dakwar said the move “should be widely condemned as the worst assault on the rule of law and global accountability mechanisms.”
‘Trump on the side of authoritarians’
At least one member of Congress swiftly spoke out on Twitter. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted that “sanctioning the International Criminal Court shows once again that Trump is on the side of authoritarians around the world.”
A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the UN chief noted Pompeo’s statement “with concern,” and urged the administration to ensure that any future actions comply with a host country agreement regarding the UN headquarters in New York City.
Washington’s move also drew concern from O-Gon Kwon, president of the Assembly of States Parties, the management oversight and legislative body of the ICC.
Kwon said he strongly rejects “such unprecedented and unacceptable measures against a treaty-based international organization” that will “only serve to weaken our common endeavor to fight impunity for mass atrocities.”
“We stand by our court and its staff as well as those cooperating with it in implementing its judicial mandate,” Kwon vowed.
He called on state parties and stakeholders “to reiterate once again our unwavering commitment to uphold and defend the principles and values enshrined in the [Rome] Statute and to preserve its integrity undeterred by any measures and threats against the court and its officials, staff, and their families.”
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