International Criminal Court headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands

By Gary Raynaldo       DIPLOMATIC TIMES

UNITED NATIONS  –  NEW YORK –   UN human rights experts said  Thursday that the decision by the United States to authorize sanctions targeting staff at the International Criminal Court (ICC) is “a direct attack to the institution’s judicial independence.   Earlier this month, President Trump  signed an executive order allowing  the imposition of  sanctions and travel restrictions against ICC officials directly engaged in The Hague, Netherlands-based tribunal’s  efforts to investigate American military personnel for alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.  

 “The implementation of such policies by the US has the sole aim of exerting pressure on an institution whose role is to seek justice against crimes of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression”.

-said Diego García-Sayán, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, speaking on behalf of the 34 experts

ICC Probe  ‘Ideological Crusade’ Against American Service Members:  Pompeo

Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said the United States is extending and expanding visa restrictions for ICC officials directly engaged in those same investigations to include their family members.  “It gives us no joy to punish them.  But we cannot allow ICC officials and their families to come to the United States to shop and travel and otherwise enjoy American freedoms as these same officials seek to prosecute the defender of those very freedoms,” Pompeo said   The U.S. secretary of state characterized the ICC action  as an  “ideological crusade against American service members in seeking to investigate our brave warriors for alleged crimes arising from counterterrorism missions in Afghanistan.”

UN Human Rights Experts Accuse U.S. of  Coercing ICC Officials

“It’s a further step in pressuring the ICC and coercing its officials in the context of independent and objective investigations and impartial judicial proceedings,” García-Sayán said.   The UN experts said sanctions targeting international judges and international civil servants violate their privileges and immunities, as well as “a broad spectrum” of rights.  Specifically, the Executive Order “would result in the violation of the prohibition of punishment for acts that did not constitute criminal offences at the moment of their commission, the right to a fair trial, the right to freedom of movement and the right to privacy and family life,” they added.  They also recalled that the US has warned it would “exact consequences” against the ICC for any “illegitimate” investigations into Israeli practices in the occupied Palestinian territory.