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More Countries Leaving International Criminal Court Amid U.S. Pressure
Confirmed
In Short: As the United States intensifies its pressure on the International Criminal Court, five countries have announced their withdrawal in the past year, joining others like Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
The Hague, Netherlands -- The International Criminal Court faces growing pressure as the United States sanctions more staff members and threatens to push more countries to leave the institution. According to the U.S. State Department, five countries have announced plans to withdraw from the court, with Venezuela and Chad joining Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger in recent departures.
The court's spokesperson, Oriane Maillet, expressed regret over these decisions, stating, 'The ICC regrets any decision to depart from the collective effort to end impunity for the most serious international crimes.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio has vowed to pressure the court’s 125 member states to withdraw, sanction organizations that work with the court, and ban staff from traveling to the United States. The U.S. has already sanctioned a dozen ICC staff in retaliation for warrants issued for top Israeli officials and investigations into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.
Iva Vukušić, a researcher at Utrecht University, noted that the U.S. campaign will reveal the extent of countries' commitment to the court. Mel O’Brien, an associate professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, added, 'These countries are ruled by authoritarian leaders who want to avoid accountability for the harms they are inflicting on their own people.
What's confirmed
- THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- As the United States ratchets up the pressure on the International Criminal Court, sanctioning two more high-ranking staff members in recent weeks, a small but growing number of the global tribunal’s member states have announced they will quit the institution.
- The recent departure of Venezuela and Chad brings the number of countries to pull out of the court in the past year to five, joining Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
- “Five countries so far have announced plans to withdraw from the Rome Statute, and we welcome more announcements in the future,” a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told The Associated Press.
- “The ICC regrets any decision to depart from the collective effort to end impunity for the most serious international crimes,” the court's spokesperson Oriane Maillet told the AP.
- Rubio said he will pressure the court’s 125 member states to withdraw from the institution, sanction organizations that work with the court and ban staff from traveling to the United States.
- Trump’s administration already has sanctioned a dozen ICC staff in retaliation for warrants the court has issued for top Israeli officials over the war in Gaza and investigations into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.
- Iva Vukušić, a researcher at Utrecht University, told the AP that the U.S. campaign will lay bare just how committed countries are to the court.
- “These countries are ruled by authoritarian leaders who want to avoid accountability for the harms they are inflicting on their own people,” Mel O’Brien, an associate professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, told the AP.
What's still developing
- It's not just pressure from Trump that is sending ICC members toward the exit door.
- It is not just pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump that is sending ICC members toward withdrawal.
- Ukraine previously signed an agreement to give the court jurisdiction over crimes on its territory, following the outbreak of hostilities with Russia in 2014.
- Russia exploits and deceives foreign nationals to enlist them in its armed forces and send them to fight in Ukraine, and in many cases these practices amount to human trafficking, the human rights organization Amnesty International said in a report published Sept. 10.
- Russia primarily targets people from low-income countries in the Global South, the report said.