The Trump administration’s escalating campaign against the International Criminal Court (ICC) is reaching far beyond the judges, prosecutors, and human rights groups it has sanctioned, chilling civil society engagement with the Court and undermining victims’ access to justice, Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and 36 other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) said on 23 September 2026.
The CSOs’ brief makes two fundamental arguments. First, the sanctions are fracturing civil society networks that are essential to the functioning of the ICC. CSOs and human rights defenders, including lawyers, victim representatives, and survivor-advocates, carry out a wide range of activities which the ICC depends on: connecting victims and witnesses to the Court; documenting atrocity crimes; supporting victim participation and reparations; contributing critical legal, contextual, and cultural expertise; and advancing state cooperation and domestic investigations and prosecutions, particularly in situation countries where the Court has limited access.
Second, by imposing and threatening draconian financial and legal penalties on CSOs and individual actors, EO 14203 violates their rights to freedom of expression and association and has severely damaged the collaboration and infrastructure upon which the international system of justice depends. EO 14203 has already caused the Designated Entities to lose funding, staff, banking access, and partnerships; deterred CSOs from engaging with the ICC; and fractured relationships between and among many CSOs. The result is measurable and irreparable harm not only to civil society, but to the ICC, to the administration of international criminal justice, and, ultimately, to the victims and survivors the system exists to serve.
Photo credit © ICC-CPI
