January 16, 2025
The U.S. Must Reject the International Criminal Court’s Attack on Its National Sovereignty
America doesn’t owe fealty to the ICC.
America doesn’t owe fealty to the ICC.

Last week, the International Criminal Court (ICC) authorized an investigation of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity by U.S., Afghan, and Taliban troops in Afghanistan, as well as by CIA black sites operated in Poland, Lithuania, and Romania. While the prosecution will likely fail, it represents another effort by a global elite — consisting of European governments, international organizations, and their supporting interest groups, academics, and activists — to threaten American sovereignty.

The Rome Statute, which established the ICC in 1998, was supported by 120 states. It had the worthy goal of preventing the world’s most horrific crimes. Today the ICC can exercise jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, aggression, and genocide. Its founders believed that an international organization in the form of a court could replace the customary role of nation-states to punish those who violate the rules of civilized warfare.

The Clinton administration signed the treaty in 2000, but did not submit it for Senate ratification. American support for the court dissolved after 9/11, as American officials worried that the ICC would become an anti-American kangaroo court used by certain countries to constrain nation-state sovereignty. In 2002, the Bush administration announced that it would not sign the agreement, and empowered then-State Department official John Bolton to lead a U.S. campaign to sign bilateral immunity agreements with more than 100 countries to protect both parties from the ICC’s jurisdiction.

Ever since, the ICC has labored ineffectually.

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BTDT
BTDT
March 19, 2020 9:46 am

America should just come right out and tell the ICC to go pluck itself. If anybody is capable of doing that it will be DJT. Same for Canada regarding the interference in our nation’s economy by UNDRIP. Problem. We have JT. Be sure and read the UNDRIP piece here today.