Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been enmeshed in a campaign to hold the International Criminal Court accountable for abuses of power, and on Tuesday, he designated two ICC officials, both President Tomoko Akane of Japan and Senegalese Senior Trial Lawyer Abdoulaye Seye as under sanction by the United States. And he's right to take on that body that has no bearing on American citizens or American law.
The ICC, Rubio said, "is a corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate. We will not tolerate its assault on state sovereignty." His interest is in essentially dismantling the body, encouraging 125 member states to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the court.
"These individuals," Rubio wrote, "have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction." He states that "The ICC has repeatedly attempted to assert authority over nationals of the United States and other countries that have not consented to its jurisdiction or ratified the Rome Statute. This sets a dangerous precedent for all nations."
The Rome Statute was adopted in 1998, though not by the United States, and was a treaty to give the ICC the power to try individuals for global crimes. These crimes include genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. The court currently has five current judges from Georgia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Slovenia, and Canada.
AOC has advocated for American allegiance and subservience to the International Criminal Court as has her crony New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani has said that he would arrest Netanyahu on that warrant when the leader comes to New York, which he does periodically to meet with the UN.
Mamdani had to walk that back when it turned out the mayor of New York does not have jurisdiction to arrest foreign leaders. The diplomats who visit the city to do business with the UN are not even subject to parking laws and regulations and are not made to pay parking tickets.
Part of the socialist plan for the United States under the Democratic Socialists of America is for Americans to come under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. On their platform, the DSA states "Defund the Department of War. End all foreign wars and close overseas military bases. Support and fully employ veterans. End immunity for U.S. war criminals and support the International Criminal Court's mandate to prosecute war crimes."
Human Rights Watch said that the Trump administration's sanctions against the International Criminal Court is a "blatantly illegal attack on international justice and should be struck down." Americans have no reason to believe that the ICC has the same high legal and judicial standards for evidence, prosecution, and punishment that are Constitutionally mandated in the United States.
The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and lists him as a defendant "at large" on their website. They state that he is "Allegedly responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024."
The ICC fired back at Rubio, saying that "These sanctions are a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution which operates pursuant to the mandate conferred by its States Parties from across regions." They said that "When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk." The court promised to "continue to fully discharge its mandate with independence and impartiality." In the past year, 5 nations have pulled out of the ICC.
No one in the United States ratified whatever tenets uphold the International Criminal Court. Nothing in our Constitution suggests even remotely that Americans should be held to law that was established in some foreign body in which Americans have not been able to elect representatives. Rubio is right: the US cannot be and must not be party to the ICC.
America has outlined an exceptional set of rights and freedoms in our founding documents. Every American knows we have natural rights, endowed by God, inalienable, that we are not and will never again be slaves and that no government may infringe upon these rights. That's why Marco Rubio is right to denounce the International Criminal Court and state for the record that it has no jurisdiction over the United States or her citizens.
The ICC is an ideologically driven body that takes as its commandment a moral perspective cobbled together from progressive positions that are grounded in nothing. The ICC is not only un-American but anti-American. We have laws. We have borders. We have our own judiciary that is sworn to uphold the laws of these United States that were created by leaders who were elected by American citizens and American citizens only.
This article was first published in Libby Emmons' newsletter. You can subscribe here.
