With the threat of sanctions, the White House has been reportedly pressuring the International Criminal Court (ICC) to grant immunity to President Donald Trump. The pressure campaign has been reported at a time when the US attacks on boats in international waters have drawn war crime accusations.
The White House has been pressuring the International Criminal Court (ICC) to amend its charter to grant immunity to President Donald Trump and senior officials of his administration, according to Reuters.
If the ICC does not accept the Trump administration’s demands, it would face sanctions, a US official told Reuters.
The ICC is the
world’s top court with 125 member states that tries the most serious crimes of international concern — genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Unlike the United Nations’ (UN) International Court of Justice (ICJ), which tries cases involving states, the ICC tries cases involving individuals.
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The Trump administration is concerned that Trump and senior officials like Vice President JD Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth could be tried for war crimes after 2029 when the present administration’s term would end, the official told Reuters.
“There is growing concern … that in 2029 the ICC will turn its attention to the president, to the vice president, to the secretary of war and others, and pursue prosecutions against them. That is unacceptable, and we will not allow it to happen,” the Trump administration official said.
The Trump administration’s pressure campaign against the ICC for immunity has been reported at a time when the
US military campaign of blowing up boats and killing sailors in international waters has drawn accusations of war crimes. Since September 2, the US military has blown up 22 boats and killed 87 persons.
The administration has claimed that the sailors it has been killing are terrorists, but it has neither shared any evidence nor provided identities of those killed.
In the most contentious act,
the US military on September 2 conducted a secondary strike to kill two shipwrecked survivors of the initial strike who were clinging to the broken vessel without any weapon or communication device. Their killing was in violation of both international law and the American war manual.
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The official said that the Trump administration has also demanded that the ICC drop its
investigation into Israeli leaders over the war in the Gaza Strip and an earlier investigation into American troops’ actions in Afghanistan.
Failure to accept these three conditions would result in penalties on ICC officials and sanctions on the ICC itself, the official said.
Impractical demands and death of ICC
The demand for the grant of immunity for Trump is both impractical and against everything that the ICC stands for.
Granting immunity in the charter for specific individuals would kill the purpose of the ICC.
In any case, any effort to change the Rome Statute —the agreement that established the ICC— would require approval of two-thirds of countries that have ratified the Rome Statute.
While most amendments require the support of two-thirds of members to pass, fundamental changes to the ICC’s jurisdiction would require an even larger majority to be implemented, according to Reuters.
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