Rights groups launch new legal challenge to Trump campaign against ICC

Four leading human rights groups have launched a new lawsuit against the Trump administration’s campaign against the International Criminal Court.

The new lawsuit filed on Tuesday charges that the administration’s wide-ranging sanctions against the international tribunal and organisations that cooperate with it risk treading on the constitutional rights of US citizens and groups. It adds to several previous legal challenges making similar claims.

The four US-based groups – The American Friends Service Committee, the Centre for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch, and the Open Society Institute – charge the sanctions “force them to curtail a wide range of human rights and legal work”. That, in turn, violates their constitutional rights, including their freedom of speech and their right to due process.

The lawsuit further charges that Trump has exceeded his presidential authority “based on a pseudo ‘national emergency’ that has no basis in fact”, according to a Human Rights Watch statement.

“The US government’s efforts to dismantle the ICC and punish people seeking justice for grave human rights violations harm far more than the individuals and groups facing sanctions. It is an affront to all victims and survivors of war crimes and genocide,” said Joyce Ajlouny, general-secretary of the American Friends Service Committee.

“This executive order seeks to intimidate human rights defenders and deter people of conscience from advocating for the rights and dignity of others. We are joining this lawsuit because we refuse to stay silent when the pursuit of justice is criminalised.”

Trump escalated his approach towards the ICC upon taking office last year, issuing a sweeping executive order in February 2025 that authorised sanctions against the court’s prosecutors, judges and other officials, as well as individuals or groups that support the court’s investigations.

The executive order specifically cited the court’s issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes committed in Gaza, as well as an ongoing investigation into possible abuses committed by foreign forces in Afghanistan, including US military and intelligence personnel.