The United States must immediately withdraw sanctions against International Criminal Court (ICC) personnel, UN experts said today, after new designations targeting the President of the Court and a staff member were issued on 18 August.
“All ICC Members and other States committed to accountability must take bold and urgent action to protect the Court against unlawful interference in the administration of international justice,” the experts said. “States must act immediately to mitigate the impact of these measures against judges, prosecutors and staff of the ICC.”
On 18 August, the President of the ICC, Judge Tomoko Akane of Japan, and ICC Senior Trial Lawyer, Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal, were designated for sanctions by the US Government. With this latest round of designations, 11 current or former ICC judges and personnel have been sanctioned under US Executive Order 14203.
“The imperative to act is all the more urgent because the US Government has pledged to ‘systematically dismantle the ICC’ on the erroneous claim that it threatens US sovereignty,” the experts said. “If that policy succeeds, it will roll back international criminal accountability gains against impunity forged in the fires of Nuremberg and Tokyo, and the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda; and extinguish hope for victims of the gravest atrocity crimes across the world.”
