“The Trump Administration has been clear: the International Criminal Court, or ICC, is a corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a statement. “We will not tolerate its assault on state sovereignty.”
To address the ICC’s abuses of power, Secretary Rubio designated two ICC officials – President of the ICC, Tomoko Akane of Japan, and ICC Senior Trial Lawyer, Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal. These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction.
The ICC has repeatedly attempted to assert authority over nationals of the United States and other countries that have not consented to its jurisdiction or ratified the Rome Statute. This sets a dangerous precedent for all nations. That’s why Secretary Rubio announced in July, a sweeping campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court to U.S. sovereignty.
The campaign features a whole-of-government response to systematically disable the ICC’s ability to operate, target American servicemen or officials, or otherwise threaten American sovereignty.
The ICC claims the authority to prosecute and even imprison American servicemen and officials operating on behalf of America’s national interest. “Americans never signed up for this,” said Secretary Rubio, “and all American presidents since the ICC’s ratification have maintained that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over Americans. The ICC previously opened an investigation into U.S. servicemen and intelligence officers and has since refused to close these cases.”
“The ICC now seeks to become the unaccountable global arbiter – positioning itself above and beyond the nation state as a supranational enforcement arm of a globalist bureaucracy empowered to persecute American servicemen and officials at will. No diplomatic option will be off-limits in the campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the ICC to Americans,” declared Secretary Rubio.
The campaign will feature a wide range of actions intended to ensure that the International Criminal Court is incapable of threatening U.S. sovereignty or targeting Americans.
“Our whole of government campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the ICC to national sovereignty will be sweeping,” said Secretary Rubio, “and we expect more countries to join our campaign by ending their funding and participation in this politicized and unaccountable court. The ICC’s ability to target American nationals and those of other non-States Parties must end.”
The administration of President Donald Trump stands ready to take additional measures to dismantle the ICC until it is incapable of threatening American sovereignty.