Trump administration launches effort to isolate ICC

The Trump administration is launching an effort to dismantle what it calls the threat to US sovereignty by the International Criminal Court, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday.

President Donald Trump and others in Washington, such as former President George W Bush, have long said the ICC should not have the authority to investigate and prosecute Americans, particularly members of the military. Reuters found the Trump administration backed sanctions against ICC officials in part to head off any future attempts to hold the Republican president or his officials accountable for US military action overseas.

In a video message posted on Monday, Rubio said the ICC was initially intended to prosecute only the gravest offenses, but had turned out to be "something far more radical and extreme," adding that the Trump administration would not allow the court to threaten U.S. personnel.

A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters earlier that a wide range of options is under consideration to target the ICC, including travel bans, visa revocations, increased sanctions against the ICC and affiliated organizations, and diplomatic pressure on other nations to withdraw from the ICC.

"No diplomatic option will be off-limits in the campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the ICC to Americans," the State Department said in a statement. ICC spokesperson Oriane Maillet said the court would not comment on the matter at this stage.

The ICC was established in 2002 by the international community to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. It asserts jurisdiction only if a member state is unable or unwilling to prosecute atrocities itself. The United States has never been a member of the court. However, the ICC statute also gives the court the power to prosecute atrocity crimes committed on the territory of member states by nationals of non-member states.