US launches campaign to ‘dismantle’ ICC
The United States on Monday announced a sweeping campaign against the International Criminal Court (ICC) that would also pressure other countries to withdraw their support for the Hague-based institution.
In a video message on Monday and an op-ed article for the Wall Street Journal also published that day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the campaign includes stepping up sanctions against “foreign bureaucrats” who constitute the court.
“We will watch with interest which nations join ranks with us against this threat to Americans who are willing to risk their lives to protect others,” Rubio also said.
In its statement on Monday, the US Department of State also said countries “that enjoy the benefits of the US security umbrella are called upon to reject the ICC’s purported authority to prosecute American officials and servicemen.”
The state department cited as the basis of the US campaign the ICC’s “intolerable threat to US sovereignty” and to “American servicemen and officials operating on behalf of America’s national interest.”
Japan said on Monday it is “watching closely with concern” the intended US actions against the Hague court, while the Philippines said it “respects” that “policy.”
‘Waging a war’
In his video statement, Rubio said “The ICC and its friends are waging a war against our country—not with bullets or missiles, but with statutes, compacts and the force of so-called international law.”
He said the court “threatens every aspect of our political and legal system—border patrol agents removing violent criminals from our country, American Marines risking their lives to defend our homeland, prosecutors working to dismantle terrorist plots to attack and kill Americans.”
“If we stand idle, all of them would be at the mercy of foreign judges thousands of miles away, facing the constant risk of prosecution and even imprisonment for the so-called crime of defending their own country,” he said.
“Independence is our birthright. We will never let foreign bureaucrats take that away from us,” Rubio said. “If they believe they can deprive us of our sovereignty, we will teach them the full meaning of American resolve.”
The state department said the US campaign will “systematically disable the ICC’s ability to operate, target American servicemen or officials, or otherwise threaten American sovereignty.”
“No diplomatic option will be off-limits in the campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the ICC to Americans,” the agency said, as it also warned of “increased scrutiny of nations that refuse to reject the ICC’s false authority while relying on US assistance.”
‘Parties’ to statute
The ICC is supported by 125 countries as “parties” to the 2002 Rome Statute which established the court.
But these parties do not include the United States, China, Russia and Israel, among others.
The Hague court has pending arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after they were charged with war crimes in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Although the United States has no case in the ICC, the court had launched an investigation in 2020 into alleged atrocities by US forces then occupying Afghanistan.
According to the state department, “The ICC previously opened an investigation into US servicemen and intelligence officers and has since refused to close these cases.”
In February 2025, shortly after President Donald Trump returned to office, Washington slapped asset freezes and travel bans on several ICC officials in response to the arrest order on Netanyahu over the war in Gaza.
Japan’s support
The court is funded by the Assembly of States Parties, which comprises the signatory states to the Rome Statute.
Japan, which became a party to the Rome Statute in 2007, is the ICC’s biggest financial contributor.
The court has also been headed since 2024 by Tomoko Akane, the ICC’s first president from Japan.
Following Rubio’s remarks, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said the country “places great importance on the eradication and prevention of serious crimes as well as the upholding of the rule of law [and] has consistently supported the ICC in its capacity as a permanent international criminal tribunal.”
Kihara said Tokyo will consult with the ICC and its other parties regarding the US campaign against the court.
‘Respect US position’
In Manila, Palace press officer Claire Castro noted that “the policies of the United States are not within the Philippine government’s control.”
“This is the policy of the United States, and we respect its position. For now, we have nothing further to say because we are simply acting in accordance with what our own laws provide,” she said.
The Philippines, one of the initial signatories to the Rome Statute, withdrew from that treaty in 2018 under the administration of then President Rodrigo Duterte, whose drug war the ICC was already looking into at that time.
The withdrawal took effect the next year but had no impact on the crimes against humanity case eventually filed against Duterte.
In March 2025, Duterte was arrested by Philippine authorities heeding the Interpol’s enforcement of the ICC arrest warrant and transported to the ICC headquarters in the Hague, where he is still detained.
‘Deserving obliteration’
Salvador Panelo, Duterte’s former chief presidential legal counsel, said the US campaign against the ICC “is long in coming.”
“It is about time the bullying of ICC must stop. The withdrawal of countries as members of the ICC will result in its deserving obliteration,” he said, citing the “illegal and unforgivable” detention of Duterte as among the court’s “unlawful” intrusions into Philippine sovereignty.
The ICC has also issued an arrest warrant against Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who remains missing and has been tagged by the Philippine government as a “fugitive from justice.”
Dela Rosa, the Philippine National Police chief early in Duterte’s drug war, is identified by the court as a co-perpetrator in Duterte’s case.
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