Four U.S. human rights organizations have taken legal action against President Donald Trump’s administration for imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), which they argue are illegal. The American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch, and the Open Society Institute filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit challenges Trump’s executive order from February 2025, which authorized sanctions against ICC personnel and individuals or groups supporting the court. These sanctions were triggered by the ICC’s issuance of arrest warrants in late 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes in Gaza, a move rejected by Israel.
The plaintiffs assert that the sanctions have hindered their human rights and legal activities, infringing on constitutional rights such as freedom of speech. Human Rights Watch’s international justice director, Liz Evenson, emphasized in an online news conference that the Trump administration’s actions undermine the rule of law necessary for safety and human rights protection globally. The White House, responding to CBC’s inquiry about the lawsuit, criticized the ICC’s alleged overreach and emphasized the U.S. commitment to safeguard its sovereignty and allies from what it considers illegitimate ICC actions.
The ICC, headquartered in The Hague, investigates and prosecutes individuals accused of war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, and aggression. The U.S. has had a longstanding contentious relationship with the court, not being a party to the Rome Statute that established the ICC in 1998 and refusing to recognize its authority. Tensions escalated during the Trump administration, which sanctioned the ICC’s former chief prosecutor and several judges, including Canada’s Kimberly Prost.
Recently, advocacy groups in the U.S. also sued the Trump administration over the ICC sanctions, alleging violations of freedom of speech and suppression of Palestinian human rights advocacy. The administration’s use of economic sanctions to control political expression faced criticism for targeting human rights advocates. Separately, three sanctioned ICC judges, including Prost, filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York, arguing that the sanctions are an unlawful attempt to influence their judicial independence.
In another legal battle, U.S. legal groups sought judicial clarity on birthright citizenship restrictions imposed by the Trump administration. The U.S. Supreme Court had rejected the administration’s bid to deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. to unauthorized or temporary residents. Despite this ruling, Trump issued executive orders attempting to limit birthright citizenship, prompting legal challenges to assert the Supreme Court’s authority on this matter.