Most member states of the International Criminal Court have voiced support for the institution in response to the US administration’s decision to authorise sanctions against court staff.
President Donald Trump on June 11 authorised economic and travel sanctions against ICC workers who were investigating US troops and intelligence officials serving in Afghanistan, and allied nations including Israel, for possible war crimes.
In a strongly worded joint statement on Tuesday, 67 of the 123 member nations, including Australia, the UK and the Netherlands, said that they were reaffirming “our unwavering support for the ICC as an independent and impartial judicial institution".
The countries repeated their commitment to preserving the court's integrity, “undeterred by any measures or threats against the court, its officials and those co-operating with it".
The court in The Hague was created in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in countries where authorities could not or would not bring perpetrators to justice.
The US has never been an ICC member.
Human Rights Watch welcomed the pledge of support from member states.
“This statement is highly significant because ICC member states globally, including key US allies, are speaking up in defence of the court and its independence,” said Richard Dicker, international justice director at the rights organisation.
“It sends the crucial message that ICC states have the court’s back and will not be cowed in their commitment to seeing justice for crimes against humanity and war crimes.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced the tribunal as a “kangaroo court” that has been unsuccessful and inefficient in its mandate to prosecute war crimes.
Mr Pompeo said the US would punish ICC employees for any investigation or prosecution of Americans in Afghanistan.
The court personnel could also be banned from the US for prosecuting Israelis for over abuses against Palestinians, he said.
“It gives us no joy to punish them,” Mr Pompeo said.
“But we cannot allow ICC officials and their families to come to the US to shop and travel and otherwise enjoy American freedoms as these same officials seek to prosecute the defenders of those very freedoms.”
Last year, Mr Pompeo revoked the visa of the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, after she asked ICC judges to open an investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.
The judges initially rejected the request, but Ms Bensouda appealed and the court authorised the investigation in March.
That ruling marked the first time the court’s prosecutor was cleared to investigate US forces.
The case involves allegations of war crimes committed by Afghan national security forces, Taliban and Haqqani network militants, and by US forces and intelligence officials in Afghanistan since May 2003.
Ms Bensouda said there was information that members of the US military and intelligence agencies “committed acts of torture, cruel treatment, outrages on personal dignity, rape and sexual violence".
The nations that signed Tuesday’s statement called the court “an essential component of the multilateral architecture upholding the rule of law".
"It embodies our collective commitment to fight impunity for international crimes,” they said.
The states said that by giving the court their full backing, “we defend the progress we have made together towards an international rules-based order, of which international justice is an indispensable pillar".
