Rights groups sue Trump over sanctions he placed on ICC due to Israel warrants

NEW YORK — Rights groups on Tuesday sued US President Donald Trump over his sanctions targeting the International Criminal Court, saying the measures block victims of war crimes from pursuing justice.

The Trump administration, which rejected the ICC’s authority, had imposed travel bans and asset freezes on several judges and prosecutors, primarily over their investigations into key US ally Israel.

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In a New York court filing, four groups including Human Rights Watch said the sanctions should be struck down as they violate laws including First Amendment free speech protections.

“This is an unlawful abuse of power constituting a frontal attack on the rule of law, the independence of judges, prosecutors, and lawyers, basic precepts undergirding the international legal order, and the principle of equal access to justice,” the lawsuit stated.

The 101-page complaint said the restrictions “cause grave damage to the ability to bring to justice the perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.”

The US sanctions, issued under an executive order Trump signed in February 2025, had targeted eight judges, three prosecutors, a UN expert and three human rights organizations.

The sanctions followed the ICC’s November 2024 decision to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant over Israel’s conduct during the war against Hamas in Gaza. The court said there were reasonable grounds to believe the two bore criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The allegations came after Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel that sparked the ongoing war. Israel strongly rejected the allegations and disputed the court’s jurisdiction.

Neither Israel nor the US is a member of the ICC. Furthermore, Jerusalem has argued that the Palestinian Authority’s membership in the court does not give it jurisdiction over Israeli nationals.

Trump’s February 2025 executive order accused the court of taking “illegitimate and baseless” action against the US and Israel, citing both the warrants against the Israeli leaders and the ICC’s investigation into alleged crimes by US personnel in Afghanistan.

Tuesday’s lawsuit is the latest example of organizations pushing back on what they call the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine international law and prevent efforts to combat impunity by governments around the world.

Other organizations joining the lawsuit are the American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Open Society Institute.

The groups assert that the financial and legal penalties against the ICC have forced them to “curtail a wide range of human rights and legal work in violation of their First and Fifth Amendment rights under the US Constitution and under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”

Efforts to retain the global tribunal’s power come as the ICC faces enormous pressure, both internally and from its more than 120 member states. Among those sanctioned by the US last year was Karim Khan, who was the ICC’s chief prosecutor until he was removed from the post last month, nearly two years after sexual misconduct allegations against him first emerged.

Last month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the US was launching a “sweeping campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court to US sovereignty.”

In a video message, Rubio said the US would pressure member states to withdraw from the institution, sanction organizations that work with the court and ban staff from traveling to the United States.

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