Former prosecutor calls for EU statute blocking US sanctions on ICC members | International criminal court
A former prosecutor at the international criminal court has called for EU-wide legislation to prevent US sanctions on members of the court, which he said are driving the court into oblivion.
In February 2025, the United States imposed sanctions on 11 ICC officials, including nine judges and prosecutors general, and three Palestinian organizations, in response to the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants in 2024 for members of the Israeli cabinet, including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
US sanctions, which include travel bans and asset freezes, have left judges outside the European financial system, making it impossible for them or their families to live normal lives.
Fatou Bensouda, who served as ICC prosecutor between 2012 and 2021, told a meeting at the Hague Rights Forum, one of the leading non-governmental organizations in the Netherlands: “These are coercive attempts to interfere with the independent exercise of judicial and prosecutorial functions established under international law. If the international community does not respond with seriousness, institutional determination and practical solidarity, the consequences will go far beyond the Hague.”
Without naming the United States, he said: “The use of such tools against prosecutors, judges or court officials performing judicial duties in order to impose responsibility for the most serious crimes represents a profound conceptual distortion.
“This is thuggish and inappropriate behavior, and it must be explained for what it is. It turns disagreement with due process into crippling economic coercion to achieve political ends. This is power politics through bullying, coercion and other means.”
Bensouda accused ICC affiliated states of “largely slow and timid reactions, inactions and empty gestures of support, without concrete support and pushback against coercive measures.”
There is growing anger in some quarters that the Dutch government, which hosts the ICC in The Hague, has done little to protect ICC judges who face crippling sanctions or individual threats.
Gambian lawyer Bensouda, who now serves as the West African country’s high commissioner to the UK, said he had been subjected to organized threats during his time in court and had reason to believe his subsequent career path had been affected.
He also warned that, as an institution, preparations should be made now to impose sanctions on the court.
“We have to ask ourselves an uncomfortable question,” he said. “What happens to the institution’s future capacity if highly skilled professionals conclude that service at the ICC carries unacceptable personal and financial risk? What happens when sanctions are normalized as tools of judicial intimidation? What happens when banks refuse services, insurers withdraw cover, technology providers hesitate to engage, and outside experts fear engagement with the court? And this is not hypothetical.”
She called for “structural resistance”, saying “state parties, through the assembly of state parties, should establish coordinated legal, defense and indemnification mechanisms for sanctions. State parties cannot respond merely with expressions of concern. Supportive statements are no longer enough. Concrete proposals are necessary.”
“No prosecutor, judge, registrar or investigator acting within legal authority should face personal financial ruin as a result of politically motivated sanctions. States should create protected banking and financial channels for the court, its staff and authorized contractors. The EU should take action to trigger EU blocking legislation.”
He also called on state parties to “adopt domestic legal safeguards that prevent enforcement cooperation with coercive measures against lawful ICC activities.” The Rome Statute system cannot be based on moral solidarity alone. It requires operational solidarity.”
The Dutch government signed an agreement with the ICC that obliges the government to ensure the safety, security and protection of persons indispensable to the court, but progressive Dutch MPs claim that the coalition government has done little to defend the ICC in practice, leaving the task to other countries, especially Spain.
The United States announced that it was sanctioning ICC officials for their direct involvement in ICC efforts to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute Israeli citizens without Israel’s consent.
Bensouda said the United States had distorted sanctions and turned them from a legitimate tool to being used for completely inappropriate political signals. “The purpose of personal sanctions is not only punitive but also deterrent,” he said. “It aims to create fear. It aims to isolate.”
She said the aim of the sanctions was for the ICC to fade into oblivion, adding: “The ICC is not a hostile government. It is not an armed group. It is not a terrorist organization. It is not a sanctions evader. It is a critical judicial body. And using sanctions against judicial actors represents a dangerous misuse of a tool originally justified for fundamentally different purposes.”
