Rights groups take Trump Administration to court over sanctions on the International Criminal Court News
OSeveno, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Rights groups take Trump Administration to court over sanctions on the International Criminal Court

Four human rights organizations filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Trump administration challenging US sanctions targeting the International Criminal Court (ICC), alleging that the measures unlawfully restricted their human rights, legal, and advocacy work.

Human Rights Watch, the American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the Open Society Institute filed the lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The organizations argue that the sanctions have forced them to limit work involving the ICC and individuals and organizations targeted by the administration. They allege that the sanctions exceed the president’s authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, violate the Administrative Procedure Act, and infringe their rights under the First and Fifth Amendments and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The lawsuit challenges President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14203, issued in February 2025. The order authorizes the government to block property and restrict entry into the US for certain ICC officials and foreign individuals who assist court investigations or prosecutions involving citizens of the US or its allies without those countries’ consent. Trump declared such ICC actions an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security and foreign policy.

The administration has used the order to sanction ICC officials and others connected to the court’s work. In February 2025, the Treasury Department sanctioned then-ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan. It later sanctioned Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, and in September 2025 designated three Palestinian human rights organizations: Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights under its sanctions framework.

The plaintiffs say the sanctions affect their ability to communicate and collaborate with sanctioned individuals and organizations, participate in ICC proceedings, conduct research and advocacy, and pursue accountability for alleged international crimes. The groups contend that the restrictions interfere with work extending beyond the court’s investigations involving Israel and the US.

The conflict between the administration and the ICC intensified after the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024. The ICC found reasonable grounds to believe the two bore responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The court also rejected Israel’s jurisdictional challenge, finding that Israel’s acceptance of the ICC’s jurisdiction was not required because the court could exercise territorial jurisdiction through Palestine.

Neither the US nor Israel is a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC. The Trump administration has maintained that the court lacks the authority to investigate or prosecute citizens of countries that have not consented to its jurisdiction. In Executive Order 14203, Trump argued that ICC actions involving the US and Israel threaten national sovereignty and expose US personnel and allies to potential prosecution.

A White House official defended the administration’s actions Tuesday, arguing that the ICC’s conduct infringes on the sovereignty and national security of the US and Israel.

Tuesday’s filing follows other legal challenges to the sanctions. In June, three ICC judges sued the Trump administration, alleging that sanctions imposed over their involvement in proceedings concerning Afghanistan and Palestine exceeded presidential authority and violated federal law and the Fifth Amendment. Two US advocacy organizations filed another lawsuit in July, arguing that sanctions targeting ICC and UN officials interfered with their human rights advocacy for Palestinian rights and violated the First Amendment.

The lawsuit comes as the administration has expanded its broader campaign against the court. In July, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the US would seek to dismantle the ICC, including through diplomatic pressure on countries that support the institution.

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