United States President Joe Biden on Friday lifted sanctions his predecessor Donald Trump had imposed on the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor and pushed for a more cooperative relationship with this court after a dispute that alienated him of his allies. .
In a move that angered America’s European partners, Trump’s former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last year condemned the ICC as an “unauthorized tribunal,” which imposed both financial sanctions and a visa ban on its chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda.
Pompeo took those steps after Bensouda launched an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by US military personnel in Afghanistan.
The Hague court further irritated the United States by opening an investigation into alleged war crimes committed in the Palestinian territories by Israel, an American ally who does not recognize the authority of the ICC.
Pompeo’s successor, Antony Blinken, said on Friday that the United States “completely disagrees” with the steps taken by the ICC with regard to Afghanistan and Israel, but felt the Trump administration’s measures were “inappropriate and ineffective.”
“However, we believe that our concerns about these matters are better addressed by involving all stakeholders in the ICC process than by imposing sanctions,” Blinken said in a statement.
Democrat Biden has rescinded a Republican Trump decree on sanctions imposed in September 2020, also lifting punitive action against the head of the Department of Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation of the Public Prosecution Service, Phakiso Mochochoko.
In addition, the State Department has lifted several visa restrictions decided in 2019 against ICC employees.
The Gambia-born prosecutor will step down in June and will be replaced by British human rights lawyer Karim Khan.
– “A new phase” –
Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi, director of the Association of States Parties to the ICC, expressed the hope that the decision “marks the beginning of a new phase in our common commitment to fight impunity” for war crimes.
France, which, like other European allies, was shocked by Trump’s decision, welcomed the change of course and pledged to support the ICC.
“This is excellent news for all those who are committed to the fight against impunity, multilateralism and an international order based on the rule of law,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
Blinken positively emphasized the reforms being implemented by the ICC, including on internal issues, including judges’ salaries.
The United States, which signed but did not ratify the Rome Statute of 1998 establishing the ICC, supported specific international judicial initiatives to hold to account those who committed war crimes or crimes against humanity, including cases in the criminal justice system. Balkans, Cambodia and Rwanda.
“Our support for the rule of law, access to justice and holding those responsible for mass atrocities to account are important national security concerns for the United States,” Blinken said.
– “Restoration of American Ideals” –
The head of US diplomacy announced the end of sanctions against ICC personnel days before the government was due to respond to a lawsuit against Trump’s decree filed by the Open Society Justice Initiative, a group that promotes human rights and democracy.
James Goldston, executive director of the initiative, hailed Biden’s decision as a “restoration of American ideals.”
“The United States has a long history of applying sanctions to punish human rights violators, but never has this tool been used to punish an independent court seeking justice for victims of atrocities,” he said.
Human rights NGO Human Rights Watch commended Biden for ending “this unprecedented and utterly distorted use of sanctions” and for turning the page on “Trump’s attack on the global rule of law.”
Trump pardoned three US soldiers convicted of crimes in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in his last weeks in office.
According to her critics, this undermined the Trump administration’s argument in sanctioning the ICC: that the United States had its own judiciary capable of being accountable.
Democratic governments were more in favor of the ICC, but the United States does not remain a party to the Rome Statute, and intense opposition from Republicans makes it unlikely to happen.
The US Congress even passed a law in 2002 allowing the use of military force to liberate any American in the hands of the ICC, theoretically giving the president the power to invade the Netherlands, an ally in NATO.