Current and former ICC Assembly presidents warn diplomatic isolation efforts threaten international legal order

The current and former presidents of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) governing body have said that efforts to isolate the institution diplomatically are aimed at eroding confidence in the international legal ⁠order, as US President Donald Trump’s administration has pressured countries to isolate the ICC.

“Efforts to isolate the Court diplomatically – whether by encouraging States Parties to withdraw from the Rome Statute or urging non-States Parties to join measures ⁠intended to weaken it – are aimed at eroding not only one institution, but confidence in the international legal order itself,” Paivi Kaukoranta, the current president of the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties, and seven former presidents said in a joint op-ed published on Thursday.

In the piece that appeared on the Just Security law and policy journal’s website, they argued that the ICC represented a collective decision by sovereign states to create rules for prosecuting genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. The court, they stressed, is not intended to replace national justice systems.

“The ICC is a court of last resort,” the authors wrote.

They also rejected the argument that the court necessarily undermines state sovereignty, saying that countries joining international treaties and institutions are exercising sovereignty rather than surrendering it.

The statement comes as the Trump administration sanctioned ICC judges and officials and pressured countries to distance themselves from the court.

The US, which is not a member of the ICC, has strongly opposed its cases involving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and past investigations involving US personnel.

But the current and former assembly presidents framed the dispute more broadly, warning against a world in which political power determines when international law applies.

“The choice before us is between a world based on the rule of law and one where might decides what is right,” they wrote.

They called on the ICC’s 125 member states, international and regional organisations and other supporters of international law to provide the court with political, legal and practical backing and to help governments resist pressure to weaken it. “Now is the time to strengthen the institutions that uphold international law, not dismantle them.”

Washington has sanctioned Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, over what Secretary of State Marco Rubio described as efforts to prompt ICC action against Israeli officials.

The Trump administration has also ended US participation in the UN Human Rights Council, halted funding to UNRWA and withdrawn from UNESCO and the World Health Organization.

In January, Trump ordered the US to leave dozens more international and UN bodies, including UN Women, the UN Population Fund and the UN climate convention, saying they conflicted with US interests and sovereignty.