On 9 October 2026, the United States placed the International Criminal Court itself on the US Treasury’s list of sanctioned entities. The sanctions will take effect on 9 April 2027 unless the Court withdraws the arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant and closes the investigation into crimes committed by US forces in Afghanistan and by the CIA in secret prisons in Lithuania, Poland and Romania. Washington also demands that the Rome Statute be amended to remove nationals of non-party States from the Court’s jurisdiction.
European Democratic Lawyers (AED-EDL) condemns this unprecedented blackmail of an international court. Individual sanctions have already struck judges. Now the Court’s very existence is the target, with the US Secretary of State openly vowing to dismantle it “brick by brick”.
Europe is directly concerned. The Court sits in The Hague, and its banks, insurers and service providers are largely European. Some of the crimes whose prosecution Washington wants abandoned were committed on European soil. By invoking its allies’ military dependence, the US administration is asking European States to choose between their security and their international commitments.
AED-EDL recalls that an arrest warrant cannot be withdrawn under pressure from a State: only the judges, seized through the procedures laid down in the Rome Statute, may decide to do so;
The Court’s jurisdiction over crimes committed on the territory of a State Party, whatever the nationality of the perpetrator, lies at the heart of the Statute: giving it up would mean organising impunity for the most powerful.
States Parties are bound to cooperate fully with the Court, and the European Union has committed itself to supporting its effective functioning and independence (Council Decision 2011/168/CFSP).
AED-EDL is concerned by the path of “dialogue” with Washington chosen by several European States, and by the European Commission’s refusal to act before the deadline. Waiting six months means letting companies terminate their contracts in anticipation, as a major European insurer has already done. There is nothing to negotiate: not the warrants, not the investigations, not the Court’s jurisdiction.
AED-EDL calls on:
- the European Commission to activate the Blocking Statute (Council Regulation (EC) No 2271/96) without delay, in order to protect European operators working with the Court;
- European States Parties to the Statute to refuse publicly any discussion of pending proceedings and any amendment of the Statute dictated by threat;
- those same States to guarantee the Court’s financial and material continuity, in particular through early payment of their contributions and the establishment of secure banking channels;
- each of them to reaffirm that it will execute all of the Court’s arrest warrants, without exception.
AED-EDL expresses its solidarity with the judges, prosecutors, staff, lawyers and human rights organisations targeted by these measures. It calls on bars and lawyers’ organisations across Europe to mobilise ahead of the Assembly of States Parties in The Hague in December.
To defend the Court is to defend victims’ right to justice and the principle of equal justice for all.