ICC Horrified That Marco Rubio Pushes Back on Its Claim of Jurisdiction

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The prosecutor who pushed for these warrants is Karim Khan. Khan is now on leave while he is being investigated on charges of sexual misconduct.

As for the ICC judges themselves, they issued warrants against Israeli officials even though Israel is not subject to the ICC’s jurisdiction, having never become a member, or what’s called a “state party,” of the ICC. Though it did play an important role in negotiations during the drafting of the Rome Statute, Israel did not sign the Rome Statute and join the ICC.

The United States is similarly not subject to the ICC’s jurisdiction, having never joined the Treaty of Rome. Yet the ICC judges have treated both the United States and Israel as if they were subject to their jurisdiction.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been firm that the ICC has been acting ultra vires in trying to assert jurisdiction over both countries when it has none. In response to the ICC’s actions, Rubio has placed sanctions on four members of the ICC. This has enraged the UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, who apparently believes the U.S. should have no power to sanction the ICC judges for their assertion of jurisdiction over both Israel and the United States.

Turk has now issued a “demand” that the U.S. withdraw sanctions that it had placed on four of the judges. Shouldn’t Volker Türk instead be criticizing the ICC for thinking it can simply ignore the fact that neither the United States nor Israel are signatories of the Rome Statute, and thus are not subject to the ICC’s jurisdiction? Attempts by the ICC to assert jurisdiction where it has none is the violation of international law that Türk should be addressing. But apparently he has no problem with the ICC’s gross overreach. Nor, as he shares the ICC’s anti-Israel animus, does Türk see anything wrong with the ICC’s obsessive campaign against Israel.

Türk is now shamelessly calling for the ICC’s assertion of jurisdiction where it has none to be accepted. For that is what his attack on the American sanctions means. He doesn’t want the Americans to fight back against ICC judges, who are themselves violating international law. Those judges are the lawbreakers, and Secretary of State Rubio is perfectly within his rights to punish them with sanctions, freezing their assets in the United States.

The BBC notes that “the four judges named are all women,” in a sly attempt to suggest that there was sexism at work in the choice of judges to be sanctioned. Nonsense. These four judges were sanctioned because it was they who were the moving forces behind the attempt to impose the ICC jurisdiction on the United States and Israel.

The ICC claims that the sanctions are “a clear attempt to undermine” its independence. The ICC has it backwards. The American sanctions are a “clear attempt” to make the ICC judges obey their own rules, by making clear that they cannot assert jurisdiction over states that never signed on to the Rome Statute. The ICC’s attempt to extend its jurisdiction over the United States and Israel when it has none is “a clear attempt to undermine” international law.

Here is the full statement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio:

Today, I am designating Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza of Peru, Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini Gansou of Benin, and Beti Hohler of Slovenia pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order 14203, “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court.” These individuals directly engaged in efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without consent from the United States or Israel. Neither the United States nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute.

As ICC judges, these four individuals have actively engaged in the ICC’s illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel. The ICC is politicized and falsely claims unfettered discretion to investigate, charge, and prosecute nationals of the United States and our allies. This dangerous assertion and abuse of power infringes upon the sovereignty and national security of the United States and our allies, including Israel.

The United States will take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our sovereignty, that of Israel, and any other U.S. ally from illegitimate actions by the ICC.

I call on the countries that still support the ICC, many of whose freedom was purchased at the price of great American sacrifices, to fight this disgraceful attack on our nation and Israel.

By claiming, falsely, to have jurisdiction over both the United States and Israel, it is the ICC that violates international law.

The ICC angrily responded to the sanctions:

These sanctions are not only directed at designated individuals, they also target all those who support the Court… They are aimed against innocent victims in all Situations before the Court.”

The ICC is a global court with the power to bring prosecutions for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

That statement is untrue. The ICC does not have unlimited power to bring prosecutions. To remind the ICC yet again: It has no power over states that have not submitted to its jurisdiction. Two of those states are the United States and Israel.

These four ICC judges have come up against an American administration that has no intention of letting the ICC go unpunished for its unlawful attempt to extend its authority. Perhaps the ICC will rethink its position, recognize that the U.S. and Israel are not subject to its jurisdiction, and move on to other matters, such as the continuing war by the Muslim fanatics of Boko Haram on the Christians in Nigeria, Arab Muslim enslavement of black Africans in Mali, Mauritania, and Niger, and the use of starvation as a weapon in Sudan.