PHR files new amicus brief in “American Friends Service Committee et. al. v. Trump et. al.” at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, arguing that sanctions will undermine the ICC and block access to justice for victims of atrocity crimes.
The Trump administration’s sanctions (Executive Order 14,203) on the International Criminal Court (ICC) will lead to “direct, irreparable harm” to survivors of grave human rights abuses around the globe, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) argues in a new amicus brief filed at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in American Friends Service Committee et. al. v. Trump et. al.
Drawing on PHR’s documentation of war crimes and crimes against humanity and its past work with the ICC, PHR’s amicus brief spotlights atrocity crimes in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Myanmar, Ukraine, and Gaza to show how sanctions that undermine the ICC will impede access to healing, care, justice, and accountability for victims and survivors around the world.
“These sanctions do not simply target the ICC – they close off one of the few remaining paths to justice for survivors of some of the world’s gravest crimes,” said Gerson Smoger, JD, PhD, co-author of the brief and PHR board chair. “By deterring civil society organizations from sharing evidence and supporting ICC proceedings, the sanctions risk silencing survivors and weakening cases before they can ever reach a courtroom. For people who have endured sexual violence, attacks on health care, torture, and other atrocities, delayed justice can mean denied justice.”
