The Netherlands is bracing for potentially devastating U.S. sanctions against ICC

The Netherlands is preparing for the United States to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court in the latest escalation of the Trump administration’s attacks on the global tribunal.

Dutch officials have been told by the United States that potentially devastating sanctions on the institution are forthcoming, diplomatic and government officials with knowledge of the briefings told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.

The Netherlands is looking at ways to help the court maintain payments to staff and to protected witnesses, and to ensure that security at the detention facility is not disrupted.

Washington has already sanctioned more than a dozen current and former staff members, including half of the court’s sitting judges, in what Secretary of State Marco Rubio has described as a “sweeping campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court.”

The sanctions are retaliation for the court’s investigations of officials from the U.S. and Israel, which aren’t among the Hague-based court’s 125 member states. The court has issued arrest warrants for top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over the war in Gaza. Netanyahu and Israel strongly deny the allegations.

Typically reserved for autocrats, terrorists and cartels, sanctions can be devastating. They could prevent the court from accessing financial and IT services, and even paying its U.S. employees.

When the court’s former chief prosecutor was sanctioned in 2025, he lost access to his Microsoft email, his bank accounts were frozen and he was barred from entering the United States.

According to two sources familiar with the situation, U.S. officials warned their Dutch counterparts that sanctions would be levied as early as Monday (September 21, 2026) and encouraged the court’s host state to withdraw from the institution. The United States, along with other major global powers including Russia, China and India, is not a member.

The ICC has been preparing for months for the possibility of sanctions. Earlier this year, the court migrated off Microsoft products onto a German software provider, according to three ICC staff members who were not authorised to speak on the record. It has also changed insurance and other financial providers to companies without a footprint in the United States.

Dutch and court officials are hoping for a six-month grace period before the sanctions come into effect, arguing the institution needs time to sever itself from American companies which could face huge financial penalties if they are found to be in violation.

Beyond migrating to European-based alternatives, the Netherlands and the European Union have few options to protect the institution.

The EU “blocking statute” can be used to protect European court staff by preventing European companies from complying with the US measures, though it’s unclear whether the statute would shield the ICC itself, because it’s an international body, not a European one. EU citizens are entitled to a basic bank account, but that doesn’t provide access to credit cards or U.S. payment facilities.

A small but growing number of the global tribunal’s member states have announced plans to leave the institution in recent months, including Venezuela and Chad.

Chad specifically cited the United States in its decision to withdraw. Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Sabre Fadoul said in a statement that during a phone call with a U.S. official in July, “the American side expressed its concerns regarding the functioning of this institution and requested that Chad reconsider” its membership.