The United States imposed sanctions on Tuesday on ICC President Tomoko Akane from Japan. This move is part of Washington’s campaign against this institution, which it calls “corrupt and irreparably politicized.”
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Washington also imposed sanctions on senior ICC prosecutor Abdoulaye Seye from Senegal. This was the latest attack by the Donald Trump administration against the court based in The Hague.
Joining the critics of this US move was the UN human rights chief Volker Turk.
“The unacceptable new sanctions imposed by the US on the International Criminal Court president and prosecutor must be lifted,” his office wrote on the social network X.
V. Turk reiterated his “calls to states to defend the institutions they themselves created to ensure and protect human rights and the rule of law.”
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He also urged states to “protect court officials who have become targets of such reprisals.”
The US, which is not a party to the international treaty establishing the ICC, has previously imposed sanctions on several court officials.
These measures prohibit them from entering the US and conducting operations in the American financial system.
This is mainly a response to ICC investigations targeting the US ally Israel. In 2024, the court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in the Gaza Strip.
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