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Politico (20 May 2024)

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu preemptively blastedwhat some reports suggested were imminent arrest warrants to be issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the leaders of Israel and Hamas. And behind the scenes, 12 Republican U.S. Senators threatened to “target” the ICC prosecutor and his staff with “severe sanctions” and travel bans.

In the days since, the court has rejected attempts to “impede, intimidate or improperly influence” it, but has otherwise remained silent. However, I hope it will act before long.

As someone who has served within the Office of the Prosecutor, and whose organization has worked closely with all organs of the ICC over the years, I’ve seen the court face many challenges testing its stability — whether over indictments of senior figures in Kenya, Libya and elsewhere, or over former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration sanctioning the court’s then-prosecutor for her Afghanistan investigation (we went to court to challenge those measures).

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