In the latest episode of the U.S. moving away from international organisations, the Donald Trump administration on Tuesday (August 18, 2026) announced sanctions on the two senior officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC), including its President Tomoko Akane of Japan and senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a statement, said that the two individuals “directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction”.
While Mr. Rubio did not mention any specific person or body targeted by the international tribunal, the sanctions are pursuant to the U.S.’s Executive Order 14203 which was issued on February 6, 2025, and cited the ICC’s investigations against and arrest warrants on Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. The ICC has deplored the sanctions, calling it a “flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution”.
What is the ICC and how does it work?
An independent intergovernmental organisation headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, the ICC was formed and functions on the basis of the Rome Statute, which was adopted at a United Nations conference in the Italian capital on July 1, 1998, and came into force on July 1, 2002.
The Statute has 137 signatories including the U.S. and Israel, and 125 members. The two allies are not members of the court despite being signatories since they have not ratified the document. Several other major countries, including India, China, and Russia, are also not part of the ICC. The court was established to investigate and prosecute individuals accused of committing serious crimes that concern the international community, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. It has jurisdiction to try people from its member states and for crimes committed within the territory of its member states.
The court acts only if the state concerned “does not, cannot, or is unwilling” to prosecute individuals. When the court acts against an individual of a country that is not part of Rome Statute, the state may or may not decide to accept the proceedings. But for cases referred to the court by the UN Security Council, the court gets a flexible jurisdiction.
What are the U.S.’s contentions against the ICC?
Mr. Rubio, in his statement announcing the latest sanctions, said that the court has made multiple attempts to assert authority over U.S. nationals and citizens of countries outside the court’s jurisdiction. This, the U.S. Secretary of State said, sets a dangerous precedent.
After the court issued arrest warrant against Mr. Netanyahu in November 2024, accusing the Israeli Prime Minister of being responsible for war crimes in Gaza including using starvation as a method of warfare and intentionally directing attacks on civilians, the U.S. said that the action threatens to infringe upon its sovereignty and undermine national security and foreign policy of the country and its allies.
The U.S. has said that the court was overstepping its jurisdiction in investigating military officials and political figures from countries that are not members of the Rome Statute.
The Joe Biden administration in the White House, when the warrant against Mr. Netanyahu was issued, also rejected the move and expressed concerns over “troubling process errors” behind the decision without elaborating on it.
With the latest action, the U.S. has now sanctioned nine of the court’s 18 judges, both of its deputy prosecutors as well as a former chief prosecutor. Mr. Rubio has also said the U.S. will sanction organisations that work with the ICC and pressure member states to withdraw from the institution. Venezuela, whose leader Nicolas Maduro was kidnapped by U.S. forces in January this year, and Chad had announced last month their decision to pull out from the court. This takes the number of countries to announce withdrawal from the court in the last year to five, along with Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.
What are the impacts of the sanctions and what are the reactions to it?
Other than restricting the officials from travelling to the U.S., the sanctions will also prevent the individuals from accessing the U.S. financial system, to which most international banks are connected. The sanction will also freeze any U.S. assets held by the officials. The sanctions can have impacts in the daily life of the targeted individuals with the Associated Press quoting Canadian judge Kimberly Prost, who was sanctioned last year, saying that she had lost access to her credit cards and Amazon’s Alexa stopped responding to her.
While Mr. Netanyahu lauded the U.S. sanctions and slammed the ICC as a “kangaroo court”, Japan, home of Ms. Akane and the biggest funder of the ICC, objected to the “very unfortunate” sanctions, saying it has “consistently supported the ICC… to uphold the rule of law”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed serious concerns over the U.S. sanctions, with a spokesperson saying that the ICC is a “key pillar of international criminal justice”. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, called the sanctions unacceptable and demanded it be lifted while European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the court “must be able to act independently and without external pressure”.
European majors like The Netherlands, which host the court, and Germany have come in favour of the court. While Germany’s Foreign Ministry said the independence of the ICC was “of central importance”, Dutch Foreign Minister, Tom Berendsen, said he has invited Ms. Akane for talks “to discuss our continued support”.
The U.S. sanction is not the first reactionary measure that Ms. Akane, who has been a judge at the ICC since 2018 and its President since 2024, has faced in her career with the ICC. After the court issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin over the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow retaliated and issued its own warrants against senior court officials including the Ms. Akane.
“Even if one judge were to die, we are easily replaceable, so there is really no value in targeting us,” the 70-year-old judge had said after the Russian announcement.
Published – August 20, 2026 10:59 am IST
