Human Rights Watch And Others Sue Trump Administration Over ICC Sanctions In New York

Four American human rights organizations filed a lawsuit in New York federal court challenging the Trump administration’s sanctions targeting the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, the Netherlands.

““This is an unlawful abuse of power constituting a frontal attack on the rule of law”

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The coalition—Human Rights Watch, the Open Society Institute, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Center for Constitutional Rights—argued in a 102-page complaint filed in the Southern District of New York that the measures are “an unlawful abuse of power constituting a frontal attack on the rule of law.”

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The groups said the effect of the sanctions is to “cause grave damage to the ability to bring to justice the perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.”

They sought to strike down President Donald Trump’s Feb. 6, 2025 executive order authorizing sanctions on ICC officials, judges and others working with the court, and the complaint said the restrictions prevent cooperation with the ICC on cases involving genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

The filing named the Department of State and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as co-defendants, alongside President Donald Trump, the Department of Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC Director Bradley Smith, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, the United States Department of Justice and newly confirmed U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche.

The lawsuit is part of a broader U.S. campaign against the ICC that Secretary of State Marco Rubio described as a “sweeping campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court to U.S. sovereignty.”

In a video message cited by AP, Rubio said the U.S. would pressure member states to withdraw from the institution and sanction organizations that work with the court, while also banning staff from traveling to the United States.

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AP reported that the Trump administration had issued sanctions against Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor until he was removed from the post last month, and that the sanctions were issued in retaliation for warrants the court issued for top Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza and investigations into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.

The complaint also frames the sanctions as unconstitutional and tied to the executive order Trump signed in February 2025, which the groups said is not based on a national emergency as required by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

In the same New York filing, the groups argued the sanctions regime “under the guise of a pseudo ‘national emergency’” consists of “nothing more than the normal operation of the machinery of international criminal law.”

The groups said the sanctions have forced them to “curtail a wide range of human rights and legal work,” and they argued that the restrictions violate First and Fifth Amendment rights and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

““By targeting the ICC's work through these sanctions, the Trump administration is undermining the very rule of law we depend on to stay safe and promote and protect human rights everywhere,” Liz Evenson”

CBC

In a press conference unveiling the lawsuit, Human Rights Watch’s international justice director Liz Evenson said, “By targeting the ICC's work through these sanctions, the Trump administration is undermining the very rule of law we depend on to stay safe and promote and protect human rights everywhere.”

The complaint also describes the sanctions as causing “profound and irreparable harm” by pushing the organizations to stop fully engaging with the ICC due to fears of civil or criminal penalties and the risk of being designated for sanctions themselves.

France 24 reported that the sanctions issued under Trump’s February 2025 executive order targeted eight judges, three prosecutors, a UN expert and three human rights organizations, and that they were linked to an arrest warrant the Hague-based court issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza.

The lawsuit seeks to restore the ability to cooperate with the ICC on cases involving genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and it argues the sanctions block victims of war crimes from pursuing justice.