Two months later, U.S. ‘racially-motivated’ sanctions choke ICC
The International Criminal Court (ICC) investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community, including genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crimes of aggression.
Those mandates have fallen flat in the United States almost three months ago after the Donald Trump administration slapped top officials of the court with “unprecedented” sanctions after a looming investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by the U.S. in Afghanistan.
The Trump administration penalized the court’s Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and Phakiso Mochochoko, the Head of Jurisdiction, Complementarity, and Cooperation Division – both are Africans.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sensationally claimed the Netherlands-based organization “continues to target Americans” adding that Bensouda, was “materially assisting” the alleged effort.
The U.S. Treasury Department deemed the legal experts “specially designated nationals”, categorizing them with terrorist groups and narcotics traffickers, freezing their assets, and preventing U.S. citizens from any diplomatic activities with them.
Described by the Human Rights Watch as an “egregious disregard for victims of the world’s worst crimes”, the sanctions are crippling the ICC and jeopardizing its operation nearly three months since the imposition.
At a videoconference with African journalists earlier this month, Bensouda, a Gambian national said the U.S action against the court officials is an indication that the Rome Statute is under duress from the world’s most powerful countries, including Russia and China – all are non-signatories to the ICC jurisdiction.
The senior legal expert at the helm of The Hague-based organization called the imposition of sanctions “a raw political attack on the court and the passing of the red line” not only dangerous for the court but a direct assault on an international justice system from a third party.
“The executive order and the U.S. sanctions against elected officials of the court and myself in this instance, and other senior staff of my office, by the way, both of us Africans, have to be understood for they are, raw political attack on the court and passing of the red line,” Bensouda told African members of the press.
With the unsurprising defeat of Donald Trump to Joe Biden earlier this month, the ICC officials are roping in advocacy groups and the media to project the negative impact of the sanctions as they hope for lights at the end of the tunnel under Biden’s presidency.
“We’re here struggling with the effects of the sanctions on the officers, organizational processes, and more personally as well,” Bensouda laments.
“The attacks on the court are serious and demand serious coordinated response, which also includes from the African continent and African voices. We will continue to do our job undeterred, led by our professional obligations under the Rome Statute.”
Outraged by the move in September, Julia Friedlander, a former sanctions official at the Treasury Department described the Trump administration as “Completely, politically anathema to what our allies would do.”
The sanctions against the ICC further discredits the U.S. status as an international legal and human rights champion. America is on the record of accusing foreign nations of the same crimes it might have committed in Afghanistan.