4 rights groups sue Trump administration over ICC sanctions

Four US human rights organizations on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the administration of President Donald Trump, accusing it of using sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) to undermine international efforts to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court, the American Friends Service Committee, Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch and Open Society Institute argued that the US administration’s sanctions against the ICC and those supporting its work constitute a “blatantly illegal attack on international justice.”

“This is an unlawful abuse of power constituting a frontal attack on the rule of law, the independence of judges, prosecutors, and lawyers, basic precepts undergirding the international legal order, and the principle of equal access to justice. The effect is to cause grave damage to the ability to bring to justice the perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity,” the groups said.

The lawsuit challenges Trump’s February 2025 executive order authorizing sanctions against ICC officials, judges and others involved in its investigation of alleged Israeli crimes in Palestine, one of 18 investigations the court is conducting into war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Although the US is not a party to the ICC and has long opposed its work, the pressure intensified after the court issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged crimes in Gaza.

The US subsequently sanctioned ICC prosecutors, judges, three leading Palestinian human rights groups, and Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories.