A group of lawyers and legal organisations have launched an initiative to “defend” the International Criminal Court (ICC) as the body comes under increasing pressure from the US.
The Second International Legal Conference, held under the theme “Crimes of the Israeli Occupation in Palestine: Between Legal Accountability and Achieving Justice”, concluded in Istanbul earlier this week.
Bringing together a multinational grouping of judges, lawyers, academics, international law experts, representatives of bar associations, and legal and human rights organisations, the conference launched the “International Initiative to Defend the International Criminal Court and Its Judges”.
“The participants emphasized that international justice must remain independent of political interests and power politics, warning that continued impunity undermines the credibility of the international legal order and encourages further violations of international law,” they said in a statement.
“They called upon bar associations, universities, legal professionals, academic institutions, and civil society organizations worldwide to join the Istanbul Declaration and the International Initiative to Defend the International Criminal Court, and to unite their efforts in defending the rights of the Palestinian people, protecting the independence of international justice, and ensuring accountability for serious violations of international law without selectivity or double standards.”
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On Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration was working to “dismantle the [International Criminal Court] brick by brick”, throwing down a public gauntlet to the court that issued an arrest warrant in 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The ICC’s interfering with American military and law enforcement operations isn’t just only a grave overreach of its purported authorities. It would mean the death of the US as a sovereign and independent nation,” Rubio wrote in an opinion article.
“Using all the tools at our government’s disposal, working beside every ally with whom we can make common cause, we will dismantle the ICC – brick by brick, if necessary,” he said.
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Rubio also filmed a monologue on the issue, which was released on X on Monday, in which he accused the court of trying to take away Americans’ rights to abide by their own laws and stand in front of a jury of their peers when accused of committing a crime.
“But today, powerful people in faraway places want to take that away from us. They believe that they should be in charge of your laws, of your country, your life – and they don’t care whether or not you agree,” he said in the video.
He said that Americans likely don’t know the names of the judges, prosecutors or presidents of the international court, and that they “shouldn’t have to”, while accusing the ICC of waging a war against the US.
The US secretary of state’s criticism noted “bipartisan” opposition to the court, which was founded in 2002 in response to genocides and atrocities in war zones such as Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Notably, Rubio made no direct mention of the outstanding arrest warrant issued for Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for their alleged crimes against humanity in Gaza, where over 73,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023.
The court also issued warrants for Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes that happened during the 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel. They were subsequently assassinated by Israel.
