House of Representatives supports bill on sanctions against the International Criminal Court

The US House of Representatives on January 9 supported a bill on sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC). This is because last year the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Next is a vote in the US Senate.

This is reported by CNN and the New York Post.

The bill was supported by a Republican majority of 198 votes, with 45 Democrats voting in favor. At the same time, all 140 votes against came from Democratic Party representatives.

Fox News reports that Republican Majority Leader John Thune has promised a quick vote in the Senate so that the bill will be on President-elect Donald Trumpʼs desk when he takes office. Trumpʼs inauguration will be on January 20.

The document imposes sanctions on people who participate in any efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any person protected by the United States and its allies. It applies to 32 NATO countries and 19 non-NATO allies of the United States (including Israel, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, South Korea, the Philippines, and Egypt).

The bill also provides for the cancellation of funds that the United States has allocated to the ICC and prohibits the allocation of any funds to the court in the future.

The administration of US President Joe Biden opposed the bill. The White House stated that there are more effective ways to protect Israel, preserve the US position in the ICC, and promote international justice and accountability. However, the sanctions are supported by the US Republican Party. Moreover, the worst relations between the US and the ICC were during the first presidency of Donald Trump, who is also a Republican.

Leading human rights organizations have called on the US Congress and the Trump administration to reconsider the US position on sanctions against the ICC. They emphasize that the ICC fights impunity for the most serious crimes, and they noted the positive role of its work, in particular, bipartisan support for the investigation of war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine.

• The International Criminal Court is the only one in the world that has the right and jurisdiction to prosecute heads of state for the most serious crimes: genocide, aggressive war, crimes against humanity, violations of humanitarian law. Although it is an independent permanent court, in reality it cannot act separately from the interests of various states, including the United States, which is not even a member of this court.
• This is not the first time the US government has put pressure on the ICC. For example, in 2019 the US imposed sanctions on the ICC for investigating the situation in Afghanistan. According to investigators, American military personnel and members of the CIA probably committed war crimes when they tortured detainees in the country. At that time, the Trump administration imposed sanctions against the court, which were lifted in 2021 by the new President Joe Biden.

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