Amnesty International: Trump Administration’s Attacks on ICC Threaten International Order, Rule of Law

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said on Wednesday that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s “reprehensible attack” on the International Criminal Court (ICC) is the latest in a series of escalating actions by President Donald Trump’s administration that threaten the very foundation of the international order.

In a post on X, Callamard said the attacks target the principles of international justice, the rules-based international system, and the global institutions painstakingly built over the past eight decades to safeguard international peace and security.

She noted that the U.S. attack came on the same day the ICC’s Deputy Prosecutor was in Chad meeting victims of war crimes and atrocities committed in Sudan’s Darfur region, saying, “It is hard to imagine a starker contrast.”

“While victims seek justice, the U.S. government is working to undermine one of the world’s most important mechanisms for delivering it,” she said, stressing that the ICC was established to provide justice for victims and survivors of atrocities worldwide and to hold even the most powerful perpetrators accountable.

Callamard added that by threatening additional sanctions against the Court and affiliated organizations, revoking visas, imposing travel bans on ICC staff, and increasing diplomatic pressure on countries to withdraw from and oppose the Court, the U.S. government is intensifying its campaign to create a world without rules and without justice.

She warned that if other countries yield to such pressure, they would effectively endorse a new era marked by chaos, impunity, and widespread injustice, adding: “This is not a time for appeasement—it is a time for resistance.”

She argued that appeasement would only embolden perpetrators and pave the way for more armed conflicts and crimes committed by powerful leaders against their own people or the people of other nations.

Callamard called on all countries to respond firmly—both collectively and individually—to the Trump administration’s campaign against the ICC and other international institutions dedicated to protecting human rights.

She also urged governments to reaffirm their support for the Court and adopt practical and legislative measures, including so-called “blocking statutes,” to mitigate the impact of U.S. sanctions on those affected.

“The failure and timidity of states in responding to previous sanctions and attacks encouraged the United States to announce this strategy,” she said.

“For the sake of humanity, victims’ hopes for justice, and the prospects for lasting global security, the international community must unite to confront the bullies in the White House and the State Department and defend the rule of international law,” Callamard concluded.

She stressed that the world must not accept a system in which the most powerful bear the least legal responsibility.