The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns in the strongest terms the new wave of sanctions imposed by the U.S administration against two senior officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC): Judge Tomoko Akane, President of the ICC, and Abdoulaye Saye, Senior Trial Lawyer in the Office of the Prosecutor. 

These sanctions represent a further escalation in the U.S administration’s attacks against the ICC and its officials for carrying out their professional work in accordance with the Rome Statute. They come following the administration’s publicly declared campaign to dismantle the ICC. As the U.S President Donald Trump has recently stated, this campaign is intended to shield Israeli officials, including ICC suspect Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials from facing international justice for their crimes against Palestinians. 

By continuing to engage in such unlawful actions, the US is obstructing and intimidating an independent judicial institution from carrying out its vital work towards ensuring accountability for the most serious crimes under international law, not only in the situation in the State of Palestine, but in all situations under the jurisdiction of the ICC.

Despite the sanctions imposed on PCHR and two other Palestinian organisations, Al Mezan and Al-Haq, for their work with the ICC, PCHR reiterates its firm solidarity with the Court and its officials and reaffirms its support for the ICC’s independence and integrity. PCHR also reiterates its call on States Parties to the Rome Statute to take concrete, tangible, and effective measures to protect the Court, safeguard its independence, and ensure that it can carry out its mandate to end impunity without interference, intimidation, and threats.