Roving Periscope: Trump 2.0 regime starts ‘eroding’ global institutions
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Within two weeks of re-taking the White House for the next four years, US President Donald Trump has started ‘dismantling’ the global institutions, his latest target being the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued arrests warrants in 2023 against Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Ukraine conflict and against Israel in 2024 for its Gaza war.
Recently, the US withdrew from some of the UN human rights bodies and the World Health Organizations (WHO).
On Thursday, Trump ordered asset freezes and travel bans against ICC officials, employees and their family members, along with anyone deemed to have helped the court’s investigations. He also slapped sanctions on the ICC for “illegitimate actions” against the US, and signed an order accusing it of “abusing its power” by issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the media reported.
In response, the ICC on Friday strongly condemned the sanctions and called for global unity to defend its “independence.” The sanctions, it said, was a “direct attempt to undermine its impartial and judicial working.”
“The Court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world,” the ICC said in a statement.
“We call on our 125 States Parties, civil society, and all nations of the world to stand united for justice and fundamental human rights,” it said.
The sanctions were against the ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu last year over alleged war crimes in Gaza, which had drawn sharp criticism from both the US and Israel.
Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa’ar supported Trump’s executive order imposing sanctions, emphasizing that neither Israel nor the US are members of the ICC, and asserting that they are “thriving democracies” whose militaries adhere to international law.
But the democratic-liberal-human rights bodies condemned Trump’s moves.
“The US sanctions against ICC officials would be a gift to those around the globe responsible for mass atrocities. Sanctions are for human rights violators, not those working to hold rights abusers to account,” Liz Evenson, International Justice director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
“Trump’s executive order borrows a page out of Russia’s playbook, which has sought to obstruct the court’s work through arrest warrants against its judges and prosecutor,” she said.
Two days before slapping sanctions against the ICC, Trump held talks with Netanyahu on Tuesday.
The Trump order said that the ICC in The Hague engaged in “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel” and cited the investigations of the ICC into the alleged war crimes committed by Israeli troops in Gaza and US service members in Afghanistan.
Trump’s sanctions against the ICC are in line with his plan for Gaza’s “take over” and shifting the Palestinians to other Middle Eastern countries.
On November 21, 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and the Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, who was later declared dead by Israel.
The warrants which were approved after ICC prosecutor Karim Khan submitted an application in May 2024 are for “crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024.”
Trump, in his first presidential term, imposed financial sanctions and a visa ban on the then-prosecutor of ICC Fatou Bensouda and other senior officials and staff in 2020. His then-administration described ICC as a “kangaroo court” and took the step after an investigation was launched by Gambian-born Bensouda into war crimes allegations against US soldiers in Afghanistan.
Trump’s order at the time had not mentioned Israel. However, his administration officials said that they were angered by an investigation being carried out by Bensouda into the situation in the Palestinian territories in 2019.
The sanctions were lifted by US President Joe Biden soon after he took office in 2021. Later, Prosecutor Khan removed the US from the Afghan investigation and shifted the focus to the Taliban.
In November 2024, however, Biden strongly condemned the ICC’s “outrageous” warrant against the Israeli PM.
