The United States is increasing pressure on the International Criminal Court, leading to more countries leaving the institution THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- As the United States ratchets up the pressure on the International Criminal Court, sanctioning two more high-ranking staff members in recent weeks, a small but growing number of the global tribunal’s member states have announced they will quit the institution. The recent departure of Venezuela and Chad brings the number of countries to pull out of the court in the past year to five, joining Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The surge in withdrawals comes as the ICC faces hostility from Washington and a leadership crisis after ousting its own chief prosecutor.
State Department told The . The Rome Statute established the ICC in 2002 as the court of last resort to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s most heinous atrocities: war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression. Based in The Hague, it takes on cases when nations are unable or unwilling to prosecute crimes on their own territory.
In July, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the U.S. was launching a “sweeping campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court to U.S. sovereignty.” Rubio said he will pressure the court’s 125 member states to withdraw from the institution, sanction organizations that work with the court and ban staff from traveling to the United States. Trump’s administration already has sanctioned a dozen ICC staff in retaliation for warrants the court has issued for top Israeli officials over the war in Gaza and investigations into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan. The Central African country of Chad specifically cited the United States in its decision to withdraw.
Its Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Sabre Fadoul said in a statement that in a phone call with a U.S. official on July 23, “the American side expressed its concerns regarding the functioning of this institution and requested that Chad reconsider” its membership. Four days later, Chad said it would leave the ICC. Iva Vukušić, a researcher at Utrecht University, told the AP that the U.S. campaign will lay bare just how committed countries are to the court.
The State Department told AP the U.S. would call upon nations that “enjoy the benefits of the U.S. security umbrella” to reject the ICC. It's not just pressure from Trump that is sending ICC members toward the exit door. The ruling military juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger blamed selective justice.
The ICC has become an “instrument of neocolonial repression in the hands of imperialism,” the trio said when they announced their departures last year. A coup ousted Niger’s democratically elected government in 2023. Since then, a military junta has abandoned longtime partners and has formed new alliances instead, including with Russia, where President Vladimir Putin faces an ICC arrest warrant linked to the war in Ukraine.
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