US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a sweeping campaign on Monday to systematically disable the International Criminal Court, vowing to dismantle the Hague-based tribunal brick by brick if necessary and threatening nations that refuse to reject the court’s authority over Americans while still benefiting from the US security umbrella.
The campaign, announced via a Wall Street Journal op-ed, a video statement and a formal State Department release, includes travel bans, visa revocations and increased sanctions against ICC officials and affiliated organisations, as well as coordinated diplomatic pressure on allied governments to withdraw from the court entirely and cut off financial contributions. Nations that partner with US law enforcement or host US military bases are being called on to reject the ICC’s purported jurisdiction over Americans. “We will watch with interest which nations join ranks with us,” a State Department official said.
Rubio described the ICC as waging a war against the United States not with bullets but with statutes and so-called international law. The campaign marks a sharp escalation beyond the individual sanctions already imposed on ICC officials, including Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, and comes after three ICC judges sued the Trump administration last month challenging those sanctions as unlawful.
Former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth condemned the move, saying Rubio was dressing up a quest for impunity for American war crimes under the label of national sovereignty. The UN said the court helps bring accountability and is supported by the vast majority of member states. The ICC was established in 2002 and the United States has never joined it.
