WASHINGTON, Aug 11 (Reuters) – Four leading U.S. human rights groups on Tuesday sued the Trump administration over its campaign aimed at dismantling the International Criminal Court, calling the effort unconstitutional.
President Donald Trump last year issued an executive order authorizing sanctions on prosecutors, judges and others working with the court for pursuing cases against officials from the U.S. and its ally Israel, neither of which are members of the ICC.
Human Rights Watch, the Open Society Institute, the American Friends Service Committee and the Center for Constitutional Rights said in their lawsuit filed in New York that those sanctions prevent them from working with the court to seek justice for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity around the world.
“The plaintiffs are seeking an end to this sanctions regime, which transgresses the president’s authority and violates international and U.S. law, including the rights to freedom of expression and religion,” lead counsel Andrew Loewenstein of Foley Hoag LLP, which is representing the human rights groups, said in a statement.
The lawsuit comes after a similar lawsuit filed last month by advocacy groups who work on human rights for Palestinians. In response to that lawsuit, the State Department said the groups were seeking to “enable ICC overreach” and said the court posed a threat to U.S. sovereignty.
Three ICC judges have separately sued the Trump administration over the sanctions.
Trump’s opposition toward the ICC goes back to his first term. A similar executive order Trump issued in 2020 was blocked by a judge, who said it likely violated the First Amendment, before being rescinded by President Joe Biden’s administration in 2021.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio last month said the administration would step up efforts to undermine the court in The Hague, including with a diplomatic campaign aimed at persuading other countries to quit it. Rubio argued that the court posed a threat to U.S. personnel carrying out Trump’s hardline immigration policies or strikes on boats accused of carrying drugs, as well as other U.S. service members.
Trump during a July 31 cabinet meeting said in response to an update from Rubio that the campaign was aimed at defending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others, rather than Trump himself.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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