FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 9, 2026

Media Contact: adam@theallianceforjusticeanddiplomacy.org

WASHINGTON (October 9, 2026) — The Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice today condemned the Trump administration’s decision to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court. This marks a major escalation in Washington’s campaign against the court and multilateral bodies, moving beyond sanctions on individual judges and prosecutors to target the institution itself.

The administration has said the measures will ban transactions with the court and cut off its resources. U.S. sanctions on an entity typically force banks, insurers, and technology providers to end their work with it, putting the court’s day-to-day operations at risk. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also called on U.S. allies to “rein in the court” and threatened that further measures could follow.

“Sanctioning the entire court punishes the victims of the world’s worst crimes, from Ukraine to Sudan to Burma, who often have nowhere else to turn for justice,” said Ambassador Beth Van Schaack, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice and an Alliance co-founder. “Previous administrations learned that attacking the ICC isolates the United States from its closest allies and gives cover to the very abusers we claim to oppose. This administration is repeating that mistake on a far larger scale.”

The sanctions were announced hours after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Navi Pillay, a former ICC appeals judge, for her work in international criminal justice. In its citation, the Nobel committee pointed to the political attacks now facing international judges and courts.

The ICC consists of 125 member states, including every EU country and every NATO ally except the United States and Türkiye. The administration’s action puts Washington at odds with those governments, several of which have pledged to protect the court, including the European Union. The ICC’s registrar has urged the EU to be ready to activate its blocking statute, which shields European companies from the extraterritorial reach of foreign sanctions.

The United States has a long bipartisan record of supporting the ICC’s work where it advances U.S. interests and accountability for atrocities, including in Ukraine, Darfur, and Libya. A similar anti-ICC campaign in the George W. Bush administration’s first term was largely abandoned after senior officials concluded it was damaging U.S. relationships and security interests.

Ambassador Van Schaack is available for interviews. Her analysis of the administration’s campaign against the court is available here.

About the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice
The Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice is an organization of former senior diplomats, elected officials, and human rights experts striving to make human rights and global justice central to U.S. foreign policy. Founded by former U.S. envoys and ambassadors — Rina Amiri, Desirée Cormier Smith, Cindy Dyer, Kelly M. Fay Rodríguez, Abby Finkenauer, Dr. Geeta Rao Gupta, Dr. Beth Van Schaack, and Jessica Stern — The Alliance advances principled, values-based diplomacy that strengthens democracy, equality, and peace worldwide.