A spokesperson for the EU has pushed back against the Trump administration\u2019s assertion that the international criminal court poses a threat to US sovereignty, a day after the US government said it would work to \u201csystematically disable\u201d a global tribunal that seeks to prosecute the perpetrators of the world\u2019s gravest crimes.<\/p>\n
Anouar El Anouni, an EU spokesperson, said on Tuesday: \u201cWe stand firm in our support for the international criminal court (ICC). Attacks or threats against the court, elected officials, personnel or those cooperating with the court are simply not acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
El Anouni pointed to the court\u2019s role<\/a> in pursuing the perpetrators of some of the world\u2019s gravest crimes, from genocide to war crimes. He said: \u201cLet\u2019s also recall that the ICC does not target sovereign states, nor does it constitute a threat to their sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, he added, it \u201cexercises jurisdiction over individuals, perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community\u201d.<\/p>\n Since Donald Trump returned to power last year, his administration has steadily worked<\/a> to hobble The Hague-based court. So far, 11 of the court\u2019s officials \u2013 including the chief prosecutor and eight judges<\/a> \u2013 have been placed under US sanctions, leaving them grappling<\/a> with cancelled credit cards, Amazon and Google accounts, as well as US travel bans.<\/p>\n Monday\u2019s announcement, however, marked a dramatic escalation. In a video<\/a> published on Monday, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, claimed that the court \u201cthreatens every aspect of our political and legal system\u201d. In an accompanying op-ed<\/a>, he invoked images of US border patrol agents and elected leaders being \u201cdragged before an international court\u201d and tried by judges from around the world.<\/p>\n The US state department said in a statement<\/a> that the campaign against the court would take a \u201cwide range of actions\u201d, including potentially pressuring other nations to withdraw from the ICC and \u201cincreased scrutiny\u201d of the countries that refuse to do so while relying on US assistance.<\/p>\n Countries that could be affected by these measures include Ukraine, where the ICC launched an investigation<\/a> in 2022 into possible war crimes following Russia\u2019s invasion.<\/p>\n Legal experts described Rubio\u2019s remarks as a mischaracterisation of the tribunal\u2019s powers.<\/p>\n The court can investigate alleged crimes committed in countries that have signed up to it, or crimes committed by citizens of those countries. It can also investigate cases referred by the UN security council, or where a country not signed up agrees to let it act.<\/p>\n But the court is only supposed to step in when a country cannot or will not investigate the crimes itself. The US has not signed up to the court.<\/p>\n For US citizens abroad, chances are slim of being put on trial by the court, as about 100 countries have signed agreements<\/a> with the US to refrain from surrendering Americans to the court.<\/p>\n Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said: \u201cThe ICC is not claiming jurisdiction over conduct in the United States. Rubio is dressing up his quest for impunity for American war crimes under the label of national sovereignty, which ignores the sovereign right of other nations to invoke the ICC for crimes committed on their territory.\u201d<\/p>\n A former senior US government sanctions official suggested that the Trump administration was looking to curtail the possibility of investigations into its actions. \u201cIt gives you the sense that this is a pre-emptive campaign against any action the ICC might be considering vis-a-vis Venezuela or elsewhere abroad,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n