{"id":605364,"date":"2026-09-04T06:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/605364\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T06:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:46:19","slug":"icc-leaders-condemn-efforts-to-erode-international-legal-order-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/605364\/","title":{"rendered":"ICC leaders condemn efforts to erode international legal order | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The current and former heads of the ICC\u2019s governing body say pressure on the court threatens international law, as Washington widens sanctions and retreats from multilateral institutions.<\/p>\n

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Published On 4 Sep 20264 Sep 2026<\/p>\n

The current and former presidents of the International Criminal Court\u2019s (ICC) governing body have said that efforts to isolate the institution diplomatically are aimed at eroding confidence in the international legal \u2060order, as US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has pressured countries to isolate the ICC.<\/p>\n

\u201cEfforts to isolate the Court diplomatically \u2013 whether by encouraging States Parties to withdraw from the Rome Statute or urging non-States Parties to join measures \u2060intended to weaken it \u2013 are aimed at eroding not only one institution, but confidence in the international legal order itself,\u201d Paivi Kaukoranta, the current president of the ICC\u2019s Assembly of States Parties, and seven former presidents said in a joint op-ed published on Thursday.<\/p>\n

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In the piece that appeared on the Just Security law and policy journal\u2019s website, they argued that the ICC represented a collective decision by sovereign states to create rules for prosecuting genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. The court, they stressed, is not intended to replace national justice systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ICC is a court of last resort,\u201d the authors wrote.<\/p>\n

They also rejected the argument that the court necessarily undermines state sovereignty, saying that countries joining international treaties and institutions are exercising sovereignty rather than surrendering it.<\/p>\n

\"AA poster announcing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as wanted by the International Criminal Court, on October 6, 2025, in Krakow, Poland [Klaudia Radecka\/NurPhoto via Getty Images]<\/p>\n

The statement comes as the Trump administration sanctioned ICC judges and officials and pressured countries to distance themselves from the court.<\/p>\n

The US, which is not a member of the ICC, has strongly opposed its cases involving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and past investigations involving US personnel.<\/p>\n

But the current and former assembly presidents framed the dispute more broadly, warning against a world in which political power determines when international law applies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe choice before us is between a world based on the rule of law and one where might decides what is right,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

They called on the ICC\u2019s 125 member states, international and regional organisations and other supporters of international law to provide the court with political, legal and practical backing and to help governments resist pressure to weaken it. \u201cNow is the time to strengthen the institutions that uphold international law, not dismantle them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PhotosA pro-Palestine protest gathers on the Main Square in Krakow, Poland, on December 21, 2024 [Klaudia Radecka\/NurPhoto via Getty Images]<\/p>\n

Washington has sanctioned Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, over what Secretary of State Marco Rubio described as efforts to prompt ICC action against Israeli officials.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has also ended US participation in the UN Human Rights Council, halted funding to UNRWA and withdrawn from UNESCO and the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n

In January, Trump ordered the US to leave dozens more international and UN bodies, including UN Women, the UN Population Fund and the UN climate convention, saying they conflicted with US interests and sovereignty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The current and former heads of the ICC\u2019s governing body say pressure on the court threatens international law,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63,85,46,12512,43],"class_list":["post-605364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-europe","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-netherlands","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}