The United States has imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) as an institution, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying on Friday 9 October 2026 that Washington would “dismantle the ICC, brick by brick” unless it ends what the US regards as a “threat” to its citizens, according to UN News.
What each side said
Announcing the measure, Rubio said the US would “ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling its ability to operate”. UN News quoted him as adding: “America never joined the court. We don’t need it. And we don’t want it.” He said the door to diplomacy remained open, but warned: “Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC.” Al Jazeera reported that the administration has pointed to the court’s investigation into Afghanistan and to its arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as justification. Israel’s prime minister welcomed the step, Al Jazeera said.
The ICC called the measure unprecedented and described it as “an assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order”, according to UN News. ICC President Tomoko Akane said the court “will continue to fully discharge its mandate, with independence and impartiality”. UN News said US measures were already in place against 13 judges and prosecutors.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking through his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, condemned the sanctions on the court “as an institution” and called them “a serious blow to our collective pursuit of international criminal justice”. Independent UN human rights experts, who UN News noted are not UN employees, separately called the move a “brash attempt” to dismantle a collective international legal system.
Scope and unknowns
According to Al Jazeera, the sanctions block the court’s property and interests in property in the US and prohibit contributions or services to the court, with several temporary exemptions, including for maintenance, technology and pension services. The report said the State Department described the exemptions as a way to give states parties time to show progress on US concerns. Legal experts quoted by Al Jazeera offered differing assessments of the practical impact, with one saying it was not immediately clear how significant it would be. The US and Israel are not parties to the Rome Statute, the court’s founding treaty, Al Jazeera noted.
Why It Matters
Sanctioning a court as a whole, rather than named officials, raises questions about how other states and companies will manage their dealings with it. The dispute also reflects a basic disagreement over whether the court’s authority can reach the nationals of states that have not joined it. Whether ICC member states act collectively in response, as the court itself has urged, is likely to determine how far the measure affects its work.
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