US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reopened a diplomatic campaign on Monday aimed at dismantling the ICC by combining sanctions, putting pressure on member states and seeking allies among major powers hostile to the institution.
"Brick by brick": That is how US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hopes to dismantle the International Criminal Court (ICC). On Monday, July 13, he once again launched a "diplomatic campaign" against the institution, which was established by a treaty adopted in 1998 by 120 states to prosecute the perpetrators of genocide, aggression, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, issuing an official statement and posting a video on X, Rubio took the offensive. "As we speak, the ICC and its friends are waging war against our country," he declared. "Not with bullets and missiles, but with statutes and compacts and the force of so-called international law." Washington's campaign will use "all the tools at our government's disposal," he said, "working beside every ally with whom we can make common cause. We will dismantle the ICC."
In 2020, the ICC opened an investigation into alleged crimes by US forces in Afghanistan and in "CIA black sites" in Europe. That investigation, now dormant, had already prompted sanctions against former prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. However, it is the Israeli case that has now become Washington's top priority: In 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity committed in Gaza.
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