NEW YORK — Four major advocacy organizations filed a federal lawsuit in New York against the Trump administration to halt its aggressive campaign against the International Criminal Court.
The lawsuit claims economic sanctions targeting foreign judges and prosecutors unlawfully restrict the groups’ legal work. The American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch, and the Open Society Institute filed the complaint together in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. They state the pressure campaign forces them to scale back essential human rights efforts.
“The Sanctions Regime has been exceptionally disruptive to the international justice system as a whole and caused serious harm to the global human rights community,” attorneys wrote in the filing. “Individuals and organizations, including Plaintiffs, have been forced to cease engaging as they had before with the ICC or the designated individuals and organizations because of the risk of severe civil or criminal penalties, or in the case of non-U.S. citizens, designation for sanctions themselves.”
The legal challenge targets Executive Order 14,203, signed by President Donald Trump. The executive action accuses the international tribunal of taking unlawful steps against U.S. allies. It specifically calls out court actions involving Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over alleged war crimes and human rights abuses in Gaza.
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Following the order, the State Department applied sanctions to ICC judges, prosecutors, and UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese. Several Palestinian human rights organizations were also hit with economic penalties.
The plaintiffs argue that this “financial death penalty” inflicts “grave damage” on the court’s core mission. They say it blocks efforts to hold perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity accountable.
This case marks the second major legal battle against Executive Order 14,203. Three sitting judges from the international court previously filed their own lawsuit to stop the measures.
“The fact that so many leading human rights and humanitarian organizations have come together to challenge Trump’s unlawful executive order demonstrates the widespread harm it is causing across civil society groups dedicated to bringing those responsible for grave crimes to justice,” said Andrew Loewenstein of Foley Hoag LLP, lead attorney for the advocacy groups.
“The plaintiffs are seeking an end to this sanctions regime, which transgresses the president’s authority and violates international and US law, including the rights to freedom of expression and religion,” Loewenstein added.
The United States never ratified the Rome Statute, the founding treaty that created the ICC in 2002. Because of this, the U.S. is not a member of the tribunal based in The Hague, Netherlands.
President Trump remains a sharp critic of the court. Secretary of State Marco Rubio launched a diplomatic push to “dismantle” the organization, calling it an “intolerable threat” to American national interests.
“Using all the tools at our government’s disposal, working beside every ally with whom we can make common cause, we will dismantle the ICC — brick by brick, if necessary,” Rubio previously wrote in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.
