International Criminal Court faces the risk of further sanctions

On September 22, 2025, the media reported on the possibility of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the only international court, ratified as an entity of Trump’s administration. According to Reuters“Sanctions throughout the entity were weighed but not processed the timetable of possible movement.” Trump’s administration has already issued several sanctions against those working with the ICT, according to one executive order Introduced by President Trump in February 2025. Among these sanctions are the head of the ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, Deputy Prosecutors Nazhat Shamem Khan and Mame Mandiaye Niang; six judges Chairing at various stages in procedures on situations in Afghanistan and Palestine and Francesca Paola AlbaneseThe United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Status in Palestinian territories occupying since 1967. Most recent sanctions include three foreign non-governmental organizations-Al Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (Al Mezan) and the Palestinian Human Rights Center (PCHR)– which are said to be working with the ICC to “investigate, arrest, keep or expel Israeli nationals without Israel’s consent.” While it is not clear at this stage whether the Trump administration will impose sanctions on the ICC as a whole, the Trump administration has made it clear that further sanctions would follow.

What are the sanctions imposed on those who work with the ICC so far? These sanctions are extensive and, as determined by the Trump administration, as a result of sanctions, all assets and interests in the property and entities found in the United States or in the occupation or control of American persons. Similarly, all transactions by US persons or within (or committed) the United States that include any property or interests in real estate or otherwise excluded individuals are prohibited unless approved by general or specific permit. These prohibitions include the contribution or the provision of funds, goods or services against or for the benefit of any excluded person and receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods or services by any such person. Therefore, these sanctions result in economic paralysis.

In response to possible sanctions against the ICC as a whole, Non -Governmental Organizations (NGOs) issued a letter In support of the ICC. The letter calls on states of states to Rome’s statutes to “do what they can stop the proposed US sanctions against the ICC, an independent judicial institution ordered to address impunity for the most serious crimes known to humanity.” As the letter suggests, “such sanctions will leave countless victims abandoned by preventing the last position in justice, the armament of the global financial system to drown the court’s work and to establish the double standards where the politics and the politics.”

The letter further argues that the imposition of sanctions on the ICC would be a dangerous turning point, undermining international efforts to ensure justice and accountability worldwide. Such sanctions would have a significant effect on the ICC as an entity. If the ICC had to be approved, it would be financially paralyzed. As he explains: “US control on the global financial system ensures that the impact of simple threats of sanctions reaches far beyond Washington, as non -US banks, insurers and service providers often excessively overly with their fear of ratifying, even blocking.”

While this would threaten all the basic functions of the ICC, one of the most important effects of sanctions would leave the victims/survivors of international crimes without the help and protection they need.

Public letter signatories call on the parts of the ICC states to save the ICC and the rule of law, rejecting steady sanctions against the ICC, protecting service providers and developing practical alternatives to the US banking network, among other things.

While there is no indication of whether the ICT, as an entity, will be approved, Trump’s administration has done so much clear That “the United States will continue to receive what we consider necessary to respond to the law, to control and prevent the illegal exaggeration and abuse of the power of the ICC and to protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”

As sanctions have not yet been confirmed, the international community must consider the cooling message from the NGO’s public letter: “If sanctions do the [ICC] Activation, there will be no way back. We will forever lost one of the most relevant institutions of the last century. The world community cannot let this happen. ”