【声明】ICC関係者を標的とする米国の制裁を強く非難し、加盟国に対し、ICCを守るため実効的な措置を講じるよう求める

ヒューマンライツ・ナウは、国際刑事裁判所（ICC）関係者を標的とする米国の制裁を強く非難し、加盟国に対し、ICCを守るため実効的な措置を講じるよう求める声明を発表しました。

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Human Rights Now strongly condemns US sanctions targeting International Criminal Court personnel and demands member states take effective action to protect the Court

On 18 August 2026, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the United States was imposing sanctions on Tomoko Akane, the President of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and Abdoulaye Seye, a senior trial lawyer in the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor.[1] These latest sanctions represent a further escalation of the US campaign to destroy the independence of the Court and its ability to carry out its mandate effectively. Human Rights Now strongly condemns these and previous sanctions imposed by the US on ICC personnel, and calls on ICC member states to take effective and coordinated action to protect the Court, such as the adoption of domestic and regional blocking legislation, as a matter of the utmost urgency.

The latest steps in an ongoing campaign to undermine the Court

The sanctions against Judge Akane and Mr Seye were imposed pursuant to Executive Order 14203, which was signed by US President Donald Trump on 6 February 2025.[2] The first person designated for sanctions under the Executive Order, simultaneous with its signing, was former Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan. Khan’s designation was followed by additional designations targeting four judges in June 2025,[3] two judges and two deputy prosecutors in August 2025,[4] and two judges in December 2025.[5] With the latest round of designations, fully half of the ICC’s 18 judges, including the President, are now subject to US sanctions. Mr Seye’s designation can also be understood as a preemptive attempt to interfere with the independence of the ICC’s judiciary, given that he has been officially nominated by Senegal as a candidate for the next round of elections for ICC judges in December 2026.

While the US has always been adamantly opposed to the possibility of the ICC exercising jurisdiction over its nationals, it is clear by the following considerations, among others, that the primary motivation for its current campaign against the ICC is the desire to undermine the Court’s efforts to hold Israeli individuals accountable for crimes committed in Palestine. To date, sanctions have been issued only against Court personnel whose work has included activities relating to the Afghanistan and/or Palestine investigations. The Afghanistan investigation originally included war crimes by members of the US armed forces and the CIA within its scope,[6] but this aspect of the investigation had already been effectively discontinued by the then-Chief Prosecutor by September 2021,[7] years before judges Balungi Bossa, Ibáñez Carranza and Kimberly Prost were sanctioned in 2025 for their role in authorizing the Afghanistan investigation.[8] There were no active investigations against US citizens when Executive Order 14203 was signed, and that continues to be the case. Most Court personnel designated for sanctions have been targeted because of activities relating to the Palestine investigation, including the approval of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

The intent to shield Israel and its nationals from accountability is also evidenced by the fact that Executive Order 14203 has been used as the basis for sanctioning individuals outside the ICC involved in activities to protect Palestinian rights, namely Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967, who has been a vocal advocate for investigation and prosecution of Israeli crimes by the Court,[9] and three leading Palestinian NGOs, which have provided the Court with documentation of violations committed by Israel against civilians in Gaza.[10]

Grave impact of sanctions

Individuals who have been designated under Executive Order 14203 report the severe impact that sanctions have had on their daily lives. They have been refused visas to enter the US, and their assets in the US, such as bank accounts and property, have been seized. Because of the global reach of US financial infrastructure, the US dollar, US IT and US service providers, sanctions have also had grave impacts outside the US. Sanctioned individuals have found themselves suddenly unable to access or open bank accounts in their home countries and make international bank transfers. They have lost access to their credit cards, and their accounts with US companies such as PayPal, Amazon and Uber have been cancelled. Family members have also been affected, with reported impacts including loss of US visas and cancellation of accounts with US service providers. Sanctioned NGOs have also suffered severe impacts that include loss of funding and access to bank accounts, cancellation of social media accounts, and deletion of YouTube accounts containing important evidence of human rights violations. Some of the extraterritorial impacts of the Executive Order are due to “over-compliance,” in which banks and other actors, fearful of severe penalties, comply with the Executive Order even when there is no actual legal requirement to do so.[11]

Sanctions also have a broader “chilling” effect, “affecting the willingness of legal professionals, civil society organisations and experts to engage in accountability work” and “gradually weaken[ing] the functioning of the international justice system.”[12]

The need for effective action by member states in defense of the Court

The latest sanctions against Judge Akane and Mr Seye form part of a newly intensified US campaign, announced last month by Marco Rubio, to “dismantle” the Court and implement “a whole-of-government response to systematically disable the ICC’s ability to operate.”[13] In addition to increased sanctions against the ICC, this includes pressuring ICC member states to withdraw from the Rome Statute and end their funding and participation in the Court.[14]

It is no exaggeration to say that the ICC is facing an existential threat, and strong action is urgently required to safeguard its future and the limited but still meaningful progress that has been made since the end of WWII toward realizing the international rule of law and accountability for international crimes.

To date, however, the response by the international community, and member states in particular, has been inadequate, both in supporting the Court’s efforts to execute its mandate impartially by investigating and issuing arrest warrants against nationals of a close US ally and in defending it against subsequent US attacks.

Following the issuance of the arrest warrant against Prime Minister Netanyahu, certain Western member states showed themselves to be unwilling to fulfill their legal obligation under the Rome Statute to enforce arrest warrants impartially, either by signalling that Netanyahu was free to visit their countries without fear of arrest,[15] and/or by allowing him to travel through their airspace without consequence.[16] This stands in stark contrast to their enthusiastic support of the Court in its efforts to prosecute Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Member states have also failed to take sufficient action in response to the US campaign to undermine the ICC. Regrettably, Japan did not publicly condemn or call for the withdrawal of previous sanctions against the Court, and while it has reportedly lobbied the US behind the scenes over the past year not to sanction Judge Akane,[17] the only public response it has made so far to her designation on 18 August is that it is “very unfortunate.”[18] While other states have been more vocal in defending the Court, such as the 79 ICC member states who issued a joint statement on 7 February 2025,[19] and some have taken action to support their nationals targeted by sanctions,[20] they have failed to stand together and act in a coordinated manner to protect the Court and provide concrete, coordinated support for all individuals and NGOs sanctioned under Executive Order 14203.

Call for action

The Court must be defended against all threats to its independence and impartiality, and ICC member states in particular must stand together and take concrete and effective action to protect it. Action must also be taken to protect civil society organizations and UN human rights experts, who play a vital role in providing information to the Court and supporting the international justice system as a whole. If effective action is not taken and the US succeeds in “dismantling” or incapacitating the Court, impunity for genocide, war crimes and other international crimes will become even more severe and any progress made in the postwar period towards realizing peace and security and the international rule of law will be fatally undermined.

Human Rights Now demands that the US immediately withdraw all sanctions imposed under Executive Order 14203 and cease all efforts to interfere with the independence and impartiality of the Court.

We call on ICC member states to:

clearly and publicly condemn and call for the withdrawal of US sanctions against ICC personnel, UN human rights experts and civil society organizations, via joint and separate statements;
reaffirm their support for the Court, including commitments to continue funding its activities, via joint and separate statements;
adopt domestic and regional blocking legislation to protect sanctioned individuals and civil society organizations in their territory from the extraterritorial effect of US sanctions;
work with banks and other service providers to prevent over-compliance with US sanctions; and
provide all other necessary support to affected individuals and civil society organizations to mitigate the impact of sanctions.

[1] https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/08/advancing-the-united-states-campaign-to-address-the-threat-posed-by-the-international-criminal-court/

[2] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/imposing-sanctions-on-the-international-criminal-court/

[3] https://www.state.gov/imposing-sanctions-in-response-to-the-iccs-illegitimate-actions-targeting-the-united-states-and-israel

[4] https://www.state.gov/releases/2025/08/imposing-further-sanctions-in-response-to-the-iccs-ongoing-threat-to-americans-and-israelis-2

[5] https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/12/sanctioning-icc-judges-directly-engaged-in-the-illegitimate-targeting-of-israel

[6] https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/prosecutor-international-criminal-court-fatou-bensouda-requests-judicial-authorisation#_blank

[7] https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-prosecutor-international-criminal-court-karim-khan-qc-following-application

[8] They were part of the Appeals Court decision which authorized the investigation in in March 2020.

[9] https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/07/sanctioning-lawfare-that-targets-u-s-and-israeli-persons

[10] https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/un-experts-dismayed-us-sanctions-against-palestinian-human-rights

[11] https://coalitionfortheicc.org/news/cicc-launches-criminalising-accountability-report; https://coalitionfortheicc.org/sites/default/files/cicc_documents/Criminalising%20Accountability%20-%202026_0.pdf.

[12] https://coalitionfortheicc.org/news/cicc-launches-criminalising-accountability-report.