| "Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court" | |
 | |
 Front page of Executive Order 14203 | |
| Type | Executive order |
|---|---|
| Number | 14203 |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Signed | February 6, 2025 (2025-02-06) |
| Summary | |
| Order imposing sanctions against theInternational Criminal Court (ICC) based inThe Hague, the Netherlands | |
Executive Order 14203, titled "Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court", is anexecutive order signed byUnited States presidentDonald Trump on February 6, 2025. The order imposes sanctions against theInternational Criminal Court (ICC) based inThe Hague, Netherlands.[1][2] The order includes visa restrictions and financial penalties for people who help the ICC investigate US citizens and US allies.
TheInternational Criminal Court (ICC) can prosecute people worldwide for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. 125 nations are members of the Court,[3] but neither the US nor Israel have chosen to become members.[4] During Trump's first presidency, he imposed sanctions against the ICC's chief prosecutor,Fatou Bensouda, and one of her associates, as punishment for investigating possible US war crimes inAfghanistan.[3]
In November 2024, the ICC issuedarrest warrants for theIsraeli prime minister,Benjamin Netanyahu, andYoav Gallant, who at the time was theIsraeli defense minister. Israel and the United States opposed the decision. In the week prior to this executive order, the Republican majority in theUS Senate tried to pass sanctions against the ICC, but was blocked by Democratic senators.[3] A month prior to the order, the ICC anticipated that the incomingTrump administration would issue financial sanctions, and paid its staff three months' salary in advance.[3]
The order imposes sanctions against theInternational Criminal Court based inThe Hague, Netherlands. The order includes visa restrictions and financial penalties for people who help the ICC investigate US citizens and US allies.[5] The order was widely perceived as intended as punishment for the arrest warrants issued by the ICC against Netanyahu and Gallant. They are suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity, allegedly committed by theIsraeli forces in theGaza Strip during theGaza war.[5] It also imposed sanctions against ICC prosecutorKarim Khan.[6]
On 5 June 2025,Marco Rubio, theUnited States Secretary of State, announced that he would be placing four ICC judges on the sanctions list under the order: SlovenianBeti Hohler, BenineseReine Alapini-Gansou, PeruvianLuz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza, and UgandanSolome Bossa. In his announcement, Rubio claimed that the four "have actively engaged in the ICC's illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel. The ICC is politicized and falsely claims unfettered discretion to investigate, charge, and prosecute nationals of the United States and our allies. This dangerous assertion and abuse of power infringes upon the sovereignty and national security of the United States and our allies, including Israel."[7]
On July 9, 2025, Rubio announced that he was drawing on the order to impose sanctions againstFrancesca Albanese, theUnited Nationsspecial rapporteur for human rights in the Palestinian territories. Rubio claimed Albanese was antisemitic, supported terrorism, and expressed "open contempt" for the US, Israel, and western countries, and said the sanctions were prompted by her "illegitimate and shameful" attempts to get the ICC to act against "officials, companies, and executives" in Israel and the US.[8]
On 20 August 2025, Rubio announced that four more ICC judges would be placed on the sanctions list under the act: SenegaleseMame Mandiaye Niang, FrenchNicolas Guillou, CanadianKimberly Prost, and FijianNazhat Shameem. In the announcement, Rubio described the ICC as a "bankrupt institution" and "a national security threat that has been an instrument for lawfare against the United States and our close ally Israel."[9] In September 2025, the administration announced it was designatingAl Haq,Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and thePalestinian Centre for Human Rights under the order.[10][11][12]
On 18 December 2025, Rubio announced that the government was adding Georgian ICC judgeGocha Lordkipanidze and Mongolian ICC judgeErdenebalsuren Damdin to the sanctions list under the order, saying that two "have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel's consent."[13] The move was criticised by theInternational Bar Association (IBA), which denounced the sanctions as politically motivated interference with the Court's independence. IBA executive director Mark Ellis stated that the measures undermined the international rules-based order and amounted to an attempt by the Trump administration to intimidate ICC judges and obstruct the prosecution of serious international crimes.[14]
Caspar Veldkamp, Dutch minister offoreign affairs, stated viaX that he regretted Trump's decree and wrote "The work of the court is essential in the fight against impunity. Our country has a strong reputation and responsibility as a host country of important international legal institutions. The Netherlands actively contributes to strengthening the international legal order and multilateral cooperation and will fulfill binding international legal and treaty obligations in good faith."[15] In a post on X,Antonio Costa, the president of theEuropean Council, called the executive order a "threat" to the independence of the international judicial institution, and said that sanctioning the ICC "undermines the entire international legal system".[15]
Judges sanctioned by the American government have stated that the sanctions have directly affected their personal lives. In a December 2025 interview withThe Irish Times, Prost described effects such as how banks had immediately cut off her credit cards, how online shopping had become effectively impossible for her, how she had lost access to her Amazon accounts, how the daughter of one of her colleagues who had been sanctioned who had been living in the US had had her visa revoked, and how it became extremely difficult for her and her colleagues to exchange money between different currencies and send cash transfers to family members. Prost stated that although those effects were "small annoyances, but when they all come together at once in your life, it's paralysing."[16]
Part of theGaza–Israel conflict, theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict, and theMiddle Eastern crisis (2023–present) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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