Published today in Foreign Policy, TRP CEO, Janine di Giovanni, and Chief of Staff, Kip Hale, examine the growing campaign against the International Criminal Court and the consequences for the future of international justice. In Dismantling the ICC Doesn’t Serve U.S. Interests, Janine and Kip argue that efforts to undermine the Court risk weakening not only the ICC, but the broader system of accountability for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Their article examines the Trump administration’s escalating pressure on the Court, including sanctions against ICC officials and efforts to encourage states to withdraw from the Rome Statute. They warn that these measures could have consequences well beyond The Hague, eroding international cooperation and weakening the mechanisms available to investigate and prosecute the world’s gravest crimes.
“The catastrophic impacts of dismantling the ICC are hard to overstate.”
They also challenge the premise that weakening the ICC serves American interests. The international justice system provides critical avenues for accountability where domestic systems are unable or unwilling to act. Undermining those mechanisms risks creating an accountability vacuum at a moment when conflicts around the world are already placing extraordinary strain on the international legal order.
At a moment of profound strain on the international legal order, safeguarding the institutions that make justice possible is critical. This is at the core of TRP’s work and our conviction that without global accountability, there is no international security.