By Gary Raynaldo
After the Trump Administration unleashed one of the most scathing public attacks on an global judicial institution in recent memory, the International Criminal Court vowed to continue investigating war crimes, including those committed by Americans. In an unprecedented, vitriolic attack on the ICC, US National Security Adviser John Bolton last month threatened sanctions on The Hague-based war tribunal if the court dares investigate alleged American war crimes in Afghanistan.
The ICC said it will continue “undeterred” in the face of threats by the US.
Bolton, a known war hawk, is a longtime opponent of the International Criminal Court
Credit: CNBC.com/ getty / US National Security Adviser John Bolton
Bolton damned the ICC as “ineffective, unaccountable,” “outright dangerous” and “contrary to American principles,” and said the US “would respond against the ICC and its personnel to the extent permitted by US law.” Bolton vowed that the US would not sit by idly if the ICC follows through on an investigation into alleged American war crimes:
“We will not cooperate with the ICC. We will provide no assistance to the ICC. We will certainly not join the ICC. We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us,” National Security adviser Bolton.
“The court is an independent and impartial judicial institution”: ICC
International Criminal Court’s headquarters located in The Hague, Netherlands
In a short statement, the ICC said: “The court was established and constituted under the Rome statute, the court’s founding treaty – to which 123 countries from all regions of the world are party and have pledged their support through ratification – as an instrument to ensure accountability for crimes that shock the conscience of humanity. The court is an independent and impartial judicial institution.
“The ICC, as a court of law, will continue to do its work undeterred, in accordance with those principles and the overarching idea of the rule of law.”
France stands in solidarity with the ICC war tribunal
France also issued a statement in support of the court, with foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll saying it “must be able to act and exercise its prerogatives without hindrance”.
Bolton made the incendiary remarks in a speech to the Federalist Society in Washington, DC. The speech, titled “Protecting American Constitutionalism and Sovereignty from International Threats”, is Bolton’s first formal address since joining the administration in April. Bolton also applauded the U.S. action to close the PLO office in Washington and said America “will not allow the ICC, or any other organization, to constrain Israel’s right to self defense.” The closure of the Palestinians’ diplomatic mission in Washington D.C. came after Palestine moved to bring Israel before the ICC over allegations of human rights abuses in Gaza and the occupied West Bank .
