‘Hands Off!’: European Leaders Reject Trump's Call to Quit the ICC

European leaders are rallying behind the International Criminal Court (ICC) after President Donald Trump called for countries to "immediately" resign from the organization, amid a broader push by the U.S. Administration to dismantle it. Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin pledged his support for the intergovernmental organization and said Ireland “strongly opposes efforts to undermine the court,” during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday.

Referencing the Hague-based court as he discussed the conflict in Ukraine, Martin said Russia must be held “accountable” for its actions. Without directly mentioning Trump or the U.S., Jetten reflected on how the court has come “under attack” and asked how can anyone “possibly be opposed to prosecuting the very worst crimes?" “​I ⁠believe there can be only one response,” he continued. The ICC is recognized as the world’s highest criminal court.

It draws its jurisdiction from the Rome Statute, a treaty that went into effect in 2002 and is ratified by 125 countries. Neither the U.S. nor Israel is a state party to the Rome Statute, and therefore they do not recognize the jurisdiction of the court. Trump has long complained that the ICC oversteps its authority and should not claim jurisdiction over U.S. citizens.

His calls against the organization culminated in a public appeal at the U.N. on Tuesday. During his 45-minute speech, Trump called “on all nations that are members of the ICC to officially resign from this rogue institution, immediately.” He said the U.S. is “opposed to the out-of-control institution known as the ICC” and “will never allow U.S. service members or anyone else to be investigated or given show trials by an anti-American tribunal with no jurisdiction over us.” His call to action was swiftly rejected by German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul. "We will, of course, not be doing that," Wadephul told Germany's Deutschlandfunk radio station on Wednesday.

He described the court as "an important institution” and said the issue is "one of the areas where we do indeed have to acknowledge a regrettable difference in policy from the U.S. Administration." Similarly, European Council president Antonio Costa said the E.U. stands “firmly behind” the ICC and argued it’s “unacceptable to threaten or attack the International Criminal Court, its officials, and its staff.” At the U.N. assembly, the only nation to follow Trump’s lead appeared to be Naoero, a microstate island country formerly known as Nauru. Naoero President David Adeang said in his speech late Tuesday that he would formally withdraw his country from the Rome Statute, citing the ICC’s “increasing irrelevance.” "Naoero joins a ⁠growing number of nations standing up for their sovereignty against the ICC’s illegitimate overreach,” said U.S.

Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Michael DeSombre, after meeting with Naoero’s Deputy Foreign Minister. Leaving the ICC is neither an immediate or clean break, experts tell TIME. Withdrawal takes at least a year, and states remain bound to cooperate with proceedings opened before their departure, according to Sergey Vasiliev, a professor of international law at Open University Netherlands.