🚨 The US has sanctioned the entire International Criminal Court. This cannot be allowed to stand. The US measures are a criminal violation of the Rome Statute contrary to Article 70. They are no more credible than any lowlife gangster threatening any court, judge or prosecutor in any domestic jurisdiction. The ICC is not an American institution. It was set up by treaty. 125 states are parties to it. Its jurisdiction over Gaza and Afghanistan comes from the Rome Statute, not from Washington. If the US disputes that, the Statute gives it a route: instruct lawyers and argue it in front of the judges. Instead it has cut the Court off from the banking system so it cannot work at all. Sanctioning judges for their rulings is interference with judicial independence. Sanctioning the Court itself, so that no bank, insurer or supplier can deal with it, is an attempt to shut it down and interfere with the course of justice. Nothing like this has happened to an international court before. The Assembly of States Parties should be honest about how it got here. The Prosecutor was removed in July to appease the US and Israel. We warned you it wound not work - and now it is clear it did not work. The Court was left weaker and more exposed and the sanctions came anyway. Strength does not respond to weakness. The 125 states have to act together and they have to act now. They should convene an emergency session of their foreign ministers and agree the following actions: 🔷 Governments should agree blocking legislation prohibiting domestic compliance with these sanctions, 🔷 Domestic protection measures should be implemented for the banks, lawyers and businesses supporting the Court. 🔷 Governments must also guarantee the Court’s banking, payment services, insurance and technology, and provide emergency funding 🔷 Coordinated Tariffs and other countermeasures should be imposed against any state using economic coercion to dismantle an international court. 🔷 States should recall ambassadors and suspend high-level engagement. If the US refuses to withdraw the sanctions, they should be prepared to suspend diplomatic relations. 🔷 They should create a guaranteed funding and banking channel for the Court that the US cannot reach. The US must face the combined economic and diplomatic strength of the Court’s member states. There is no reason to expect it to change course while those states leave their relationship with Washington untouched. The Rome Statute obliges States Parties to protect the Court's ability to function. If they will not do that when it is under direct attack, the obligation is worthless. Either the States Parties show their collective strength before it is too late, or the US decides who is allowed to break the law. One thing I can promise you is that further appeasement or retreating even more will only damage our safety, security and interests in ways that are too terrible to imagine.